Finding Text
2022.002 ERRORS IN LOAN REIMBURSEMENT REQUESTS Condition: Criteria: Effect: Cause: Recommendation: TI1e City has two sewer system projects that are being financed through Joans with the Georgia Environmental Facilities Authority (GEFA). The second project began construction before the "Notice of No Significant Impact (NONSI) was received and therefore drawdowns under the Joan were only for the portion that was not affected by the NONSI. In May 2023, the City's engineering firm which prepares the reimbursement request, prepared a reimbursement request for the items that were not requested under previous requests due to the NONSI issue. The request was overstated by $19,000. In addition, various invoices related to the second project were included on reimbursement request under the first project totaling approximately $70,000. All of these errors were corrected prior to year end either by GEFA during their review of the reimbursement or by the City on subsequent reimbursement requests. Reimbursement requests should be for eligible costs under the appropriate loan related project. The reimbursement requests should be prepared by the City designated employee or agent and reviewed and approved by management prior to being sent to GEFA for their review and reimbursement. Even though all errors had been corrected prior to year end, several errors were made on the reimbursement request that eventually made its way to GEFA and were reimbursed to the City. The errors were made either by the awarding contractors on these projects and/or by the engineering firm employed by the City to manage all aspects of the projects including all submittals, record keeping, invoicing and preparing the reimbursement request. In addition, the errors were not caught by city personnel that were charged with oversight of the project. Management should provide continuing education for personnel to help with the procedures of reviewing and approving loan reimbursement requests. View of responsible officials and planned corrective action: Management agrees with the finding. Management will ensure that employees responsible for reviewing and approving Joan reimbursement requests are properly trained on eligible costs under each Joan project. Management did take swift action in correcting the mistakes that were made.