Finding 385473 (2023-004)

Condition: Devices/Services acquired with federal funds were not assigned to appropriate population of unmet needs. Criteria: FCC-ECF Program is to fund devices and services must be used primarily for off-campus educational purposes and by students, school staff with otherwise unmet needs; Who would otherwise lack access to connected device and/or broadband connectivity sufficient to engage in remote learning. Cause: The District did not assign devices/services to the correct population based on application. Effect: Noncompliance with guidance Context: 63 of the 800 devices were not issued to the proper population. Repeat Finding from Prior Year: 2022-010 Recommendation We recommend devices/services be assigned to the population approved in the federal funds application. We also recommend that District implement procedures to ensure distribution of services reconciles to the application. Views of Responsible Officials And Planned Corrective Action: Lawton Public Schools procedures require tracking of items with an acquisition cost of $5,000 or higher. These one-time FCC-ECF funds included specific criteria requiring specific tracking of all purchases including hotspots. These criteria were not identified until after the FY22 Audit was completed in March of 2023. The district updated procedures in April of 2023 to include the tracking of all items purchased with federal funds according to federal guidance. The implementation of these procedures occurred late if FY23 causing the finding to be repeated. Lawton Public Schools’ inventory practices have been evaluated. Inventory items being distributed or checked out are now entered into Incident IQ. The district has updated its’ in-processing of assets, additional staff have been put in place and trained to ensure items are distributed and tracked as required by federal award guidelines. In addition, these practices ensure distribution to only eligible students/staff.