Finding Text
2022-001: Internal Controls over Reporting Federal Grantor: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Pass-Through Grantor: Missouri Department of Social Services Federal Assistance Listing Number: 93.558 Program Title: Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Pass-through Entity Identifying Number: CS200821001 Award Year: 2021-2022; 2022-2023 Questioned Costs: $142,000 Criteria: The Uniform Guidance at 2 CFR 200.302(b) states that, ?The financial management system of each non-Federal entity must provide for the following: (2) Accurate, current, and complete disclosure of the financial results of each Federal award or program?(3) Records that identify adequately the source and application of funds for federally-funded activities. These records must contain information pertaining to Federal awards, authorizations, financial obligations, unobligated balances, assets, expenditures, income and interest and be supported by source documentation.? MCAN?s contract with the Missouri Department of Social Services requires the organization to ?submit invoices for reimbursement of actual allowable expenses? on monthly expenditure reports that must be submitted by the 15th day of each month. Condition: The expenditures incurred by subrecipients billed to the Department of Social Services on the monthly TANF SkillUp expenditure reports for the months of June 2022 through September 2022 did not agree to the expenditures incurred per the general ledger for those months. The table below shows the comparison of the amounts billed and the actual expenditures incurred per the general ledger for each month: "See Schedule of Findings and Questioned Costs for chart/table" Cause: The organization had turnover in the Executive Director and accounting positions during the fiscal year. The first monthly billing performed by the new fiscal contractor was June 2022, and it was determined that they ran a cash basis report from the accounting system in order to determine the amount of expenditures to be billed for the month instead of an accrual basis report. This led to several subrecipient invoices totaling around $142,000 which had been claimed on the May 2022 expenditure report on the accrual basis being duplicated on the June 2022 report when they were paid. The organization did not maintain the reports from the accounting system which were used to determine the amounts to be billed with the copies of the expenditure reports, therefore, significant effort was required during the audit to determine how the amounts billed were determined. Effect: Internal controls over the reporting process were not adequate to ensure that monthly expenditure reports were complete and accurate and did not provide an adequate audit trail that supported the amounts reported on the monthly reports. This led to the organization billing the grantor for expenditures that had not been incurred. The grantor has agreed to allow the organization to apply $142,000 to expenditures incurred in fiscal year 2023. Recommendation: We recommend that the organization implement internal controls over the grant reporting process to ensure that all monthly reports are complete and accurate and that only expenditures that have been incurred are requested for reimbursement.