Finding Text
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services – Assistance Listing No. 93.568, Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), Passed through Pennsylvania Department of Community & Economic Development, award number C000073840. Criteria: Per the award agreement, the Organization can bill for heaters and blankets offered to clients when work is being done in their home. Condition: During compliance testing, for one selection, we noted $4,000 instead of $400 was erroneously charged to the grant for heater and blanket services. Cause: The cost of the heater and blanket of $400 was incorrectly entered into the financial system as $4,000 during billing. The billing did not agree to supporting documents due to lack of an independent review. Effect: Billings for the related period were overstated by $3,600. Questioned Costs: $3,600 Context: We selected 25 samples totaling $209,465 out of a population of 429 totaling $3,080,376 to test. For one of the samples tested, we found that $3,600 more was billed than the total costs incurred. Repeat Finding: No Recommendation: We recommend that management ensure the policies and procedures are followed when processing billing to ensure amounts charged to the grant agree with supporting documents and are reviewed and approved before submission. View of responsible officials and planned corrective actions: ECA agrees with this finding. This particular event was a result of human error and ultimately an “extra” zero was added into the system by mistake. ECA hired a Chief Operating Officer in July 2024, who will ultimately be responsible for creating a new policy for all grant billing that must be entered into a third-party software that will include adequate reviews.