Finding Text
2022-002 Eligibility ? 14.241 HOPWA Condition: The City could not validate the income used in determining eligibility for services of HOPWA funds documented in the Provide Enterprise (PE) System. In addition, income verification support was inconsistent with monthly income amount noted and there was evidence of instances where the monthly support provided was not for a consecutive 3-month period, as required for income verification. Furthermore, self-verification was used to verify income after the COVID-19 restriction was lifted. Context: The participant?s information is initially inputted by the agency (sub-recipient) and submitted to the City for review and approval of funding for housing. For case management, the agency (sub-recipient) input an intake form which includes income, proof of status and identification is reviewed during the annual monitoring process completed by the City. The participant file should include the application information entered and scans of supporting documentation. The PE system does limitations of storage capacity therefore the original hard copies are kept at the agency site and provided upon request. Effect: The City may not be in compliance with the programs eligibility criteria and funding may be jeopardized. Cause: The subrecipients procedure are not conducive to ensure proper income verification of program participants. The City must also increase monitoring of files and perform additional procedures to address known risk with identified subrecipient(s) and/or process(es). Questioned Costs: Undetermined Recommendation: To increase the sample population and frequency of testing of the participant case files to ensure that the program guidelines are being met. Increase the frequency of the subrecipient monitoring and the perform follow-up of noted monitoring findings within prior to traditional annual monitoring. In addition, to provide continual training to the subrecipients and perform assessment of efficiencies of procedures to determine viability of relationship.