Finding Text
Finding No.: 2024-024 Federal Agency: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services AL Program: 93.323 Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity for Infectious Diseases Federal Award No.: NU50CK000558 Area: Cash Management Questioned Costs: $0 Criteria: 2 CFR 200.303(a) states that a recipient of a Federal award must establish, document, and maintain effective internal control over the Federal award that provides reasonable assurance that the recipient is managing the Federal award in compliance with Federal statutes, regulations, and the terms and conditions of the Federal award. These internal controls should align with the guidance in “Standards for Internal Control in the Federal Government” issued by the Comptroller General of the United States or the “Internal Control-Integrated Framework” issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO). Condition: RepMar does not have effective cash management monitoring procedures, to provide reasonable assurance that expenditures charged to Federal awards under the reimbursement method are incurred prior to the drawdown of Federal funds, in accordance with 2 CFR § 200.303(a). Cause: RepMar did not implement effective monitoring and oversight controls to verify that reimbursement requests were supported by allowable expenditures incurred prior to the drawdown of Federal funds. Effect or Potential Effect: RepMar may not timely detect and prevent reimbursement requests that do not comply with Federal cash management requirements. No questioned costs are reported because the condition relates to inadequacies in internal control policies and procedures. Identification as a Repeat Finding: 2023-013 Recommendation: RepMar should strengthen controls over cash management to ensure that Federal funds are drawn only after allowable expenditures have been incurred and reimbursement requests are adequately supported and reviewed. Views of Responsible Officials: The fiscal officers of the MOF Budget Division have strengthened their review of expenditures prior to disbursements and started to conduct weekly evaluation and monitoring of draw downs.