Finding Text
Federal Agencies: U.S. Department of Education
Federal Programs: COVID 19 - Education Stabilization Fund
Assistance Listing Numbers: 84.425 U and D
Award Numbers: Federal award number: S425D210020, Pass through entity award number: ER 23.YFSD.01
Award Years: 2023
Type of Finding: Material weakness in internal control over compliance and material noncompliance.
Criteria: Management is responsible for designing, implementing and maintaining internal controls relevant to ensuring that transactions charged to programs follow proper internal control processes. This includes ensuring there is proper supporting documentation for transactions as well as methods to document approval of the cost/activity to determine it is allowable under the funding requirements.
Condition and Context: We tested a sample of 25 cash disbursements for compliance with allowable costs/activities for the ESSER funding and noted 2 instances where the transaction lacked supporting documentation and 14 transactions that lacked documentation of proper approval.
Cause: Lack of internal controls related to approval and supporting documentation for transactions charged to the grant.
Effect: Lack of approval for transactions allows for an environment where unallowable costs could be charged to the grant.
Repeat Finding: This is not a repeat finding, however, due to the number of exceptions identified, we believe this to be a systemic issue to this program.
Questioned Costs: None reported.
Recommendation: We recommend that management put internal controls over cash disbursements and improve the approval process to ensure transactions charged to grant funding follow all required laws and regulations.
Management Response: Management agrees with this finding, see Corrective Action Plan.