Finding Text
US Department of Health and Human Services Passed through the NC Dept. of Health and Human Services Program Name: Food and Nutrition Services (FNS) Cluster CFDA # 10.551 and 10.561 Finding: 2022-009 Inadequate Documentation in case files SIGNIFICANT DEFICIENCY "Criteria: Per Section 200.303 of the Uniform Grant Guidance, a non-federal entity must establish and maintain effective internal control over the Federal award that provides reasonable assurance that the non-federal entity is managing the Federal award in compliance with Federal statutes, regulations, and the terms and conditions of the Federal award. The State has provided policies and procedures to ensure that the County is meeting the federal guidance, relevant policies are: Food and Nutrition Services Policy 305 describes the verification sources and requirements and the FNS units primary responsibility for providing documentary evidence to support statements on applications and recertifications and procedures required if the statements by applicant/beneficiary are questionable. Food and Nutrition Services Policy 300 describes the sources of income countable and not countable to the household for determining financial eligibility.. Food and Nutrition Services Policy 310 describes the procedures related to verifying changes in income (i.e. termination, end of contract, temporary, etc.)." Condition: There were a total of 7 errors found in our testing: 1 instance where an OVS report was not included in the case file, 1 instance where Unemployment Income Benefits were not included in NCFAST, 1 instance where Social Security Disability Income was not included in NCFAST, 1 instance where child support income was not included in NCFAST, and 3 instances where there was no evidence that required income verifications were completed. Questioned Costs: There was no known affect to eligibility and there were no known questioned costs. Context: We examined 25 of 7,940 FNS recipients from the a report of all FNS beneficiaries provided by NC DHHS. The finding is being reported with the financial statement audit as it relates to FNS administrative cost compliance audit. Effect: Due to the errors noted, eligibility cannot be sufficiently substantiated and there is a risk that the County could provide funding and/or benefits to individuals who are not program eligible. Cause: Ineffective documentation/recordkeeping and case review process. Recommendation: The County should provide training of management and staff on the program's eligibility requirements, proper case review process, and required verifications for eligibility. Also, the County should ensure that their formal internal review process is adequately completed to identify and correct errors in case reviews. Views of responsible officials and planned corrective actions: The County agrees with the finding and is implementing actions to correct these issues, which are further discussed in the corrective action plan.