Finding Text
2022-001. Reporting United States Department of Agriculture, passed-through New York State Department of Education: Child Nutrition Cluster National School Lunch Program Assistance Listing No. 10.555 COVID-19: School Breakfast Program (SSO) Assistance Listing No. 10.553 COVID-19: National School Lunch Program (SSO) Assistance Listing No. 10.555 COVID-19: National School Lunch Program (Emergency Operational Costs Reimbursement) Assistance Listing No. 10.555 COVID-19: Summer Food Service Program Assistance Listing No. 10.559 Criteria: 7 CFR ?210.8 of the Uniform Guidance requires that the School Food Authority shall establish internal controls, which ensure the accuracy of meal counts prior to the submission of the monthly Claim for Reimbursement. At a minimum, these internal controls shall include: an on-site review of the meal counting and claiming system employed by each school within the jurisdiction of the School Food Authority; comparisons of daily free, reduced price, and paid meal counts against data that will assist in the identification of meal counts in excess of the number of free, reduced price and paid meals served each day to children eligible for such meals; and a system for following up on those meal counts that suggest the likelihood of meal counting problems. Prior to the submission of a monthly Claim for Reimbursement, each school food authority shall review the lunch count data for each school under its jurisdiction to ensure the accuracy of the monthly Claim for Reimbursement. The objective of this review is to ensure that monthly claims include only the number of free, reduced price and paid meals served on any day of operation to children currently eligible for such meals. Condition: Upon testing of the monthly reimbursement claims for meals served, it was noted that due to an error in how certain meals served in one elementary school were input into the District?s point of sale system that not all meals served were included on the monthly breakfast reimbursement claim for one month. This resulted in the District not receiving reimbursement for all breakfast meals served. Cause: The District did not have a procedure in place where an individual independent from the preparation of the monthly reimbursement claim verified the information to the detailed meals served information by building in the District?s point of sale system. Effect: Not having an updated independent review of the monthly Claim for Reimbursement could result in the District receiving the incorrect reimbursement of federal funds. Questioned Costs: None reported. Context: Total sample size was for three months of meal reimbursement claims. The sample size was expanded to an additional two months of meal reimbursement claims. In one month, it was noted that 525 breakfast meals were inadvertently coded in the point of sale system as snacks and not included on the monthly claim for reimbursement. This resulted in the District being under reimbursed for meals served by $1,368. Identification of a Repeat Finding: This is not a repeat finding. Recommendation: The District should update its existing procedures to ensure that the meal reimbursement claims are reviewed and compared to the detailed information in the point of sale system for accuracy prior to being submitted to the State. Views of Responsible Officials of Auditee: The District is implementing additional procedures where all meal reimbursement claims are reviewed and approved by an individual independent of the preparation of the reimbursement claim prior to it being submitted to the State.