Finding Text
Federal Agency: U.S. Department of Education passed through the State of Alaska, Department of Education and Early Development (DEED)
Federal Program(s): COVID-19 CRRSA Act: ESSER II / ARP Act: ESSER III (ESSER)
and Title I-A
Assistance Listing Number(s):84.425 U and D and 84.010A
Award Number(s): Federal award number(s): S425U210020 and S425D210020 (ESSER), S010A230002, and S010A220002 (Title I-A), Pass through entity award number(s): ER 24.YFSD.01 (ESSER), IP 24.YFSD.01, and SI 24.YFSD.01 (Title I-A)
Award Years: 2024
Type of Finding: Significant deficiency in internal control over compliance.
Criteria: 2 CFR Part 200 Subpart E §200.400(d) dictate that the accounting practices of a recipient (or subrecipient) must be consistent with these cost principles and support the accumulation of costs as required by these cost principles, including maintaining adequate documentation to support costs charged to the Federal award. This includes ensuring there is proper supporting documentation for transactions as well as methods to document approval of the cost/activity to determine whether it is allowable under the funding requirements.
Condition and Context: We tested a sample of seventeen (17) cash disbursements for ESSER and fourteen (14) cash disbursements for Title I-A. We noted seven (7) transactions from each program that lacked either adequate supporting documentation or documentation of proper review and approval. We did not identify any transactions in either program that appeared to be unallowable based on the context of the transaction.
Cause: Lack of internal controls related to approval and supporting documentation for transactions charged to the programs.
Effect: Lack of internal controls allows for the potential for unallowable costs to be charged to the programs.
Repeat Finding: This is a repeat of Finding of 2023-006, and since it is a repeat finding, we believe this to be a systemic issue.
Questioned Costs: None reported.
Recommendation: We recommend that management implement stronger internal controls over cash disbursements, specifically to retaining supporting documentation and ensuring proper approval.
Management Response: Management agrees with this finding, see Corrective Action Plan.