Finding Text
Federal Agency: Department of Justice
Federal Assistance Listing Numbers: 16.756, 16.726
Programs: Court Appointed Special Advocates, Juvenile Mentoring Program
Award/Pass-Through Entity Identifying Numbers: 2018-CH-BX-K001, 15PJDP-21-GK-02762-CASA, 2019-MU-FX-0004, 2020-JU-FX-0028
Criteria: Recipients of federal awards must establish verifiable controls over reports that are prepared and submitted.
Condition: For six out of seven performance reports selected for testing (three in the Court Appointed Special Advocates, three in the Juvenile Mentoring Program), appropriate documentation was not available to evidence review of the report prior to submission. For three out of the 14 SF-425s selected for testing (one in the Court Appointed Special Advocates program, two in the Juvenile Mentoring Program), appropriate documentation was not available to evidence review of the report prior to submission.
Cause: While National CASA/GAL has a procedure in place that requires the program manager to review performance reports and SF-425s prior to submission, the procedure was not formalized as part of National CASA/GAL’s policies, and thus, due to turnover, proper documentation to support the review was not available.
Effect or Potential Effect: Reports could be submitted that are inaccurate or incomplete. National CASA/GAL does not have the documentation required regarding review/approval of the performance reports and SF-425s.
Questioned Costs: None.
Context: There were three performance reports submitted for the Court Appointed Special Advocates and four performance reports submitted for the Juvenile Mentoring Program; all seven performance reports were tested. There were six SF-425 reports submitted for the Court Appointed Special Advocates and eight SF-425 reports submitted for the Juvenile Mentoring Program; all 14 reports were tested. This is a condition identified per review of National CASA/GAL’s compliance with specified requirements.
Identification as a Repeat Finding: Not a repeat finding.
Recommendation: We recommend that National CASA/GAL implement controls to ensure proper documentation of review and approval of reports.
Views of Responsible Officials: Management agrees with the finding that documentation of review and approval was not maintained. Management modified their policies and procedures during the 2022 audit to ensure documentation of review and approval of reports is prepared and maintained for future reports.