Type of Finding: Significant Deficiency in Compliance and Internal Control over Compliance
Federal Agency: U.S. Department of Defense
Federal Program Name: Conservation and Rehabilitation of Natural Resources on Military Installations
Assistance Listing Number: 12.005
Federal Award Identification Number and Year: H79TI083313 - 2020
Award Period: September 28, 2020, through September 27, 2025
Criteria or specific requirement: 2 CFR 200.302(a) on Financial management states that "... the other non-Federal entity's financial management systems, including records documenting compliance with Federal statutes, regulations, and the terms and conditions of the Federal award, must be sufficient to permit the preparation of reports required by general and program-specific terms and conditions; and the tracing of funds to a level of expenditures adequate to establish that such funds have been used according to the Federal statutes, regulations, and the terms and conditions of the Federal award".
Condition: During testing, 2 of the 5 samples selected did not include sufficient documentation to agree all amounts requested for reimbursement for the month in question to the expenditures listed in the general ledger detail by program.
Questioned costs: Unknown.
Context: A sample of 5 monthly reimbursement requests were taken from a population of 13. Of the 5 sampled, two were insufficiently supported to agree the amounts requested for reimbursement for the month in question to the expenditures listed in the general ledger detail by program.
Cause: The Organization was using a cumulative profit and loss to file monthly reimbursement requests (beginning of the year through the reimbursement month). In addition, profit and loss reports were not consistently saved at the time the reports were prepared for reimbursement for January and February 2023.
Effect: The Organization is currently in noncompliance with federal regulations with regard to adequate documentation. Without adequate documentation in place to ensure costs are evidenced and reconcile to the expenditures documented in the underlying accounting information that is used to prepare the SEFA, the Organization could incorrectly charge expenditures to the federal program, or not request appropriate reimbursement that the Organization is entitled to under the terms of the grant.
Repeat Finding: The finding is a repeat of a finding in the immediately prior year. Prior year finding number was 2022-005.
Recommendation: Starting in March 2023, the Organization has already implemented a new process for the preparation of monthly reimbursement requests, including documentation retention. Point-in-time reports (i.e., profit and losses) are saved at the time of report preparation. This has enhanced clarity of costs attributable to each monthly period and reduces the chance that costs will be missed when requesting for reimbursement.
Views of responsible officials: There is no disagreement with the audit finding.
Action taken in response to finding: Previous corrective actions were completed in April 2024 upon receipt of our FY 2022 Audit from CLA. As noted above, we believe these corrective actions would have captured most, if not all, of the findings if they were in place for the entire FY23 period. That said we continue to review and strengthen our internal controls and training for admin staff for preparing reimbursement requests.
Name(s) of the contact person(s) responsible for corrective action: Gary Slater
Planned completion date for corrective action plan: 10/1/2024