Name: Legal Aid of Arkansas Recipient: 604020 Audit firm: Yoakum, Lovell and Company, PLC Audit period: Fiscal Year Ended December 31, 2022 Section I ? Internal Control Review None Section II ? Compliance Review A. Comments on Findings and Recommendations Legal Aid of Arkansas concurs with audit finding 2022-1 on the Schedule of Findings and Questioned Costs. B. Actions Taken or Planned Legal Aid of Arkansas did not request a timely waiver as contemplated in 45 CFR ? 1614 because projections showed the project on track to meet the 12.5% requirement. The primary causation of the shortage was the pro bono project director took another position and there was a gap until a replacement was found, leaving budgeted salary for pro bono services unused. A secondary cause is the lack of private attorneys to take pro bono cases in the Legal Aid services area. Arkansas remains near or at the bottom in the number of attorneys per capita nationally, and that statistic is magnified in the rural areas of North Arkansas. C. Future planning and monitoring Legal Aid requests that we be allowed to carry forward the unused portion of the 12.5% requirement to 2023, when we project to spend 13.17% on PAI delivery. We now have four dedicated pro bono staff, including one pro bono coordinator who transitioned over from our now finished PBIF grant and a new part-time coordinator for our Medical-Legal Partnership at Arkansas Children?s Hospital. The current PAI budget is $280,926.50. Instead of quarterly PAI reports, we will calculate PAI expenses monthly starting in April 2023, to assure we are on track for compliance.