Finding 38150 (2022-001)

ITEM #2022-001 FRANKLIN TRANSIT AUTHORITY PROGRAM REVIEW Federal Transit Cluster Assistance Listing No. 20.507, 20.500 U.S. Department of Transportation Criteria The Federal Transit Cluster requires the City (specifically the Franklin Transit Authority as recipient of the grants) to properly report and monitor subrecipients, maintain internal controls over expenditures charged to the program, and properly report awards and subawards in the Federal registry in accordance with the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act (FFATA). Condition and Context The Federal Transit Authority conducted a Full Scope Systems Review of the Franklin Transit Authority (a special revenue fund of the City) in fiscal year 2021 and issued their final report in April 2022. In their report, instances of noncompliance were noted over the Federal Transit Cluster, including: ? Reporting and monitoring of subrecipients: the City improperly reported the TMA Group as a subrecipient in the Schedule of Expenditures of Federal Awards (SEFA). The TMA Group is a contracted management company hired by the City to manage the Franklin Transit Authority. The TMA Group meets the criteria of a contractor, and therefore should not have been reported as a subrecipient in the City?s SEFA. The City also did not report Williamson County as a subrecipient of portions of the grant program in the City?s SEFA, and was not properly monitoring Williamson County as a subrecipient. ? Maintain internal controls over expenditures charged to the program: the City has documented and implemented internal controls over federal expenditures, however it was noted the City did not document approvals on all of the payroll registers containing salaries charged to the Federal Transit program. ? Reporting awards and subawards in the Federal registry in accordance with the FFATA: it appeared the City was not reporting awards and subawards in accordance with FFATA for the Federal Transit program. Questioned Cost None Cause The City did not have proper controls in place over the grant program to ensure compliance with certain requirements noted above. Effect The City was not in compliance with certain requirements of the Federal Transit Cluster. Recommendation The City has developed and began implementation of a plan to better monitor internal controls and compliance requirements over the daily functions of the Franklin Transit Authority and the Federal Transit program. We recommend the City continue to follow and fully implement their plan. Views of Responsible Officials and Planned Corrective Action City officials have corrected deficiencies in the report through the following corrective action plan.