Finding 29505 (2022-001)

Criteria - Upon receiving direct PRF and ARP Rural Funding distributed by Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), recipients of these funds agreed to terms and conditions which require compliance with reporting requirements. PRF payments were received throughout various periods (?Payment Received Periods?) and subject to respective ?Periods of Availability?. Each tranche of PRF money is designated by each period for which the payment was received. PRF 4 refers to the Payment Received Period between July 1, 2021 and December 31, 2021 (?period 4?). Payments received during period 4 must be used for eligible expenses incurred for the Period of Availability from January 1, 2020 to December 31, 2022. Each PRF report is designed to show how PRF payments received during the corresponding period were applied toward expenses or lost revenue during the correlated period of availability. Condition ? For the year ending December 31, 2022, there were two PRF 3 and three PRF 4 reports submitted to the HRSA reporting portal. For two of the PRF4 reports (for CHS and CMG), the quarterly expenses that were reimbursed by and reported for PRF 3 were repeated in the PRF 4 report. Although sufficient audit evidence was obtained to support that CHHS had no intent to claim any expenses for PRF 4 due to sufficient available lost revenues, the expenses were reported as cumulative when the intent of the portal reporting was to report expenses utilized just for PRF 4. Cause ? It was challenging for the management to keep up with various PRF reporting portal updates released by HRSA around the report due date. Although the management successfully accounted for PRF 4 payments applied outside of the HRSA reporting portal, the time and effort required to understand each step for data entry within the system was burdensome especially when not all data fields are editable. Effect ? Expenses were reported as applied to PRF 4 payments in the HRSA portal when management only intended to report utilizing lost revenue. There was no impact on the amount of PRF 4 revenue that was recognized. Questioned Costs ? None Repeat Finding from Prior Year ? No Recommendation ? Management should continue their efforts to ensure they understand all reporting requirements related to their federal awards.