Finding Text
Statement of Condition The Uniform Guidance requires that federal awards bear only their fair share of costs and that recipients maintain effective internal controls to ensure compliance with federal statutes, regulations, and award terms. Criteria or Specific Requirement During testing of Assistance Listing Number 11.307, we noted that NEW claimed reimbursement under two federal contracts for the same activity. As a result, payments were received from both awards for the same outcome. Questioned Costs A duplicate reimbursement under Assistance Listing Number 17.285 in the amount of $27,500 was identified, in addition to the reimbursement received under Assistance Listing Number 11.307. Effect NEW received duplicate federal reimbursement for the same performance outcome, resulting in questioned costs and noncompliance with federal award requirements. Cause Controls over tracking student milestones and reviewing billings across federal awards were not adequately designed or operating effectively to prevent, detect, or correct duplicate claims. Recommendation NEW should implement controls to identify students participating in multiple federally funded programs and perform a review of milestone billings across awards before submission to ensure the same outcome is not used to support reimbursement under more than one federal award unless expressly permitted by the award terms. Views of Responsible Officials and Corrective Action Plan Management agrees with the finding. NEW contacted the state pass-through agency and the federal agency to report the duplicate payment from Assistance Listing Number 17.285. Management will implement controls over tracking student milestones and reviewing billing across federal awards to ensure duplicate billings do not occur in the future.