Finding Text
Information on the Federal Program: U.S. Department of the Treasury, Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds Assistance Listing No. 21.027, Grant Agreement Nos. SLFPR1965, 23-11-0264, and 23-11-304.
Criteria: The segregation of duties and responsibilities between different individuals for custody of assets, recordkeeping for those assets, and reconciliation of those asset accounts is an important control activity needed to adequately protect the entity’s assets and ensure accurate financial reporting.
Condition and context: The Center does not have appropriate segregation of duties. Presently, the same individual has asset access, record-keeping, and reconciliation responsibilities.
Cause: The Center does not have enough available accounting staff to fully segregate incompatible duties in a cost-effective manner.
Effect or Potential Effect: The significant deficiency adversely affects the Center’s ability to initiate, authorize, record, process, or report financial data reliably in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles such that there is more than a remote likelihood that a misstatement of the Center’s financial statements that is more than inconsequential will not be prevented or detected by the Center’s internal control.
Identification of a Repeat Finding: New finding.
Recommendation: The Center’s management and Board of Directors must rely on its review and oversight authority to mitigate this inherent weakness in its internal control system.
Responsible Official’s Response: The Director of CFP, with support from the Executive Committee of the Board, has appointed a certified CPA to review all financial reconciliation statements and grant reports. The Director will continue and now document the periodic review of all financial statements, audits, and grant reports. The Executive Committee and Board of Directors will continue their monthly review of financial statements, audit, and tax returns and they will be accepted by the board. Additionally, we have reallocated the position of Grant Specialist to Accounting and Data Management Specialist to better distribute the duties and responsibilities of the Director of Finance.