Finding Text
Material Weakness in Internal Control Over Grant Reporting Assistance Listing Numbers 21.027 Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds
(CSLFRF) Program
Federal Agency U.S. Department of Treasury
Passthrough Agency Not applicable
Award Number/Year 2022
Criteria
The County is required to maintain a system of controls over the preparation of its Schedule of Expenditures of Federal Awards (SEFA) per the Uniform Guidance at 2 CFR 200.510(b) and its Consolidated Year-End Financial Report (CYEFR) in compliance with the 30 ILCS 708/1 Grant Accountability and Transparency Act (GATA).
Condition
The County did not have a centralized process for maintaining its grant accounting records and related supporting documentation to ensure that all federal grants expenditures were included on its SEFA and to ensure that all state grant expenditures were included on its CYEFR for fiscal year 2022. The County’s expenditures totaling $499,973 for its CSLFRF program were not included in its original SEFA which resulted in the SEFA being materially misstated.
Additionally, it appears that certain offices and departments are noncompliant with the County’s financial policy that requires that all financial accounting records and related supporting documentation be provided to the County Treasurer so that the County Treasurer can maintain a complete set of grant accounting records for the entire County. Cause
The County does not have internal personnel or contracted personnel with the requisite knowledge and experience to prepare its SEFA and CYEFR. Additionally, offices and departments within the County that receive and administer grants maintain the grant accounting records and related supporting documentation independent of the County Treasurer. These offices and departments provide the grant expenditures that are included in the CYEFR but do not consistently provide the detailed grant accounting records for use to prepare the SEFA and CYEFR.
Effect
Allowing these conditions to persist puts the County, its management and the Board of Commissioners at risk of 1) material misstatements being included in the County’s SEFA and CYEFR without being detected and noncompliance with grant agreements. These conditions could also result in a suspension of funding from grant funding sources, investigations of potential abuse and/or misappropriation of grant funds, and orders to return grant funds.
Recommendation
We recommend that management either 1) provide training for its key accounting personnel so that they will be able to prepare SEFA and CYEFR for the County and/or 2) contract with an accountant or firm that has the relevant skills, knowledge and experience to prepare the SEFA and CYEFR.
We further recommend that the Board of Commissioners enforce the County’s policy of requiring that all accounting records and related supporting documentation be made available to the County Treasurer so that there is a process in which all of the County’s financial activity pertaining to grants is compiled, reconciled and included in a complete set of grant financial reports utilized to prepare the SEFA and CYEFR for the County.
Questioned Costs
None noted. Repeat Finding
Yes. This finding also occurred in 2020 (2020-003) and 2019 (2019-002).
Views of Responsible Officials and Planned Corrective Actions
See corrective action plan.