Finding 39686 (2022-008)

Reporting Federal Department ? U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Federal Award Identification Number and Year: NH75OT000024 and 2021 COVID-19 - Activities to Support State, Tribal, Local and Territorial (STLT) Health Department Response to Public Health or Healthcare Crises, Federal Assistance Listing # 93.391 County Department ? Department of Public Health Finding 2022 ? 008 CRITERIA Per the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) number CDC-RFA-OT21-2103, entitled, ?National Initiative to Address COVID-19 Health Disparities Among Populations at High-Risk and Underserved, Including Racial and Ethnic Minority Populations and Rural Communities?, dated May 3, 2021, Section 4. Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 (FFATA), states ?Compliance with this law is primarily the responsibility of the Federal agency. However, two elements of the law require information to be collected and reported by applicants: 1) information on executive compensation when not already reported through the SAM, and 2) similar information on all sub-awards/subcontracts/consortiums over $25,000.? The Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act (FFATA) Subaward Reporting System (FSRS) website states, ?FSRS is the reporting tool Federal prime awardees (i.e. prime contractors and prime grants recipients) use to capture and report subaward and executive compensation data regarding their first-tier subawards to meet the FFATA reporting requirements. Prime contract awardees will report against sub-contracts awarded, and prime grant awardees will report against sub-grants awarded.? In addition, ?Prime Grant Recipients awarded a new Federal grant greater than or equal to $30,000 as of October 1, 2010 are subject to FFATA sub-award reporting requirements as outlined in the Office of Management and Budgets guidance issued August 27, 2010. The prime awardee is required to file a FFATA sub-award report by the end of the month following the month in which the prime recipient awards any sub-grant greater than or equal to $30,000.? In accordance with 2 CFR Part 170, Reporting Subaward and Executive Compensation Information, Appendix A, Award Term, b. 1. Reporting total compensation of recipient executives for non-Federal entities, states, ?You must report total compensation for each of your five most highly compensated executives for the preceding completed fiscal year, if - i. The total Federal funding authorized to date under this Federal award equals or exceeds $30,000 as defined in 2 CFR 170.320; ii. in the preceding fiscal year, you received? (A) 80 percent or more of your annual gross revenues from Federal procurement contracts (and subcontracts) and Federal financial assistance subject to the Transparency Act, as defined at 2 CFR 170.320 (and subawards), and (B) $25,000,000 or more in annual gross revenues from Federal procurement contracts (and subcontracts) and Federal financial assistance subject to the Transparency Act, as defined at 2 CFR 170.320 (and subawards); and, iii. The public does not have access to information about the compensation of the executives through periodic reports filed under section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (15 U.S.C. 78m(a), 78o(d)) or section 6104 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986. SECTION III: FEDERAL AWARDS FINDINGS AND QUESTIONED COSTS (Continued) Reporting Federal Department ? U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Federal Award Identification Number and Year: NH75OT000024 and 2021 COVID-19 - Activities to Support State, Tribal, Local and Territorial (STLT) Health Department Response to Public Health or Healthcare Crises, Federal Assistance Listing # 93.391 County Department ? Department of Public Health Finding 2022 ? 008 (Continued) CRITERIA (Continued) 2. Where and when to report. You must report executive total compensation described in paragraph b.1. of this award term: i. As part of your registration profile at https://www.sam.gov. ii. By the end of the month following the month in which this award is made, and annually thereafter.? CONDITION During the current audit period, the Cook County Department of Public Health (DPH) did not comply with its FFATA reporting requirements as outlined in its notice of award and federal regulations. CAUSE Based on discussions with management, the cause of this finding resulted from having subrecipients in the grant application identified as vendors. As a result, staff classified the associated costs as professional services instead of grant disbursements which is used to identify subrecipient(s) on the grant. Also, the Program Lead informed Finance late which did not allow sufficient time to mobilize CCH staff to prepare and submit the FFATA reporting. EFFECT Failure to prepare and submit required reports is a violation of federal regulations and impairs the grantor agency?s ability to adequately monitor the program activities/federally funded program. QUESTIONED COSTS None. CONTEXT Based on our review of the fiscal year 2022 grant disbursements, we noted a total of 13 subrecipients had expenditures greater than $30,000. We selected 4 subgrantee (subrecipients) for review and noted that DPH did not submit any reporting information as required under the FFATA Subaward Reporting, in the FSRS system. SECTION III: FEDERAL AWARDS FINDINGS AND QUESTIONED COSTS (Continued) Reporting Federal Department ? U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Federal Award Identification Number and Year: NH75OT000024 and 2021 COVID-19 - Activities to Support State, Tribal, Local and Territorial (STLT) Health Department Response to Public Health or Healthcare Crises, Federal Assistance Listing # 93.391 County Department ? Department of Public Health Finding 2022 ? 008 (Continued) IDENTIFICATION OF REPEATED FINDINGS None. RECOMMENDATION We recommend that DPH develop and implement procedures to ensure required reports are prepared, reviewed, and submitted in a timely manner and in compliance with its grant agreement and federal regulations. Also, sub-grant agreements and related expenditures incurred should be reviewed to ensure the appropriate determination, classification, and reporting of subrecipients. VIEWS OF RESPONSIBLE OFFICIALS AND PLANNED CORRECTIVE ACTIONS The County agrees with the finding and recommendation. The County?s corrective action plan is on page 64.