Finding 513712 (2024-001)

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Requirement
E
Questioned Costs
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Year
2024
Accepted
2024-12-10
Audit: 331618

AI Summary

  • Core Issue: Management failed to identify an ineligible recipient in time, leading to improper funding through the School Readiness program.
  • Impacted Requirements: Recipients who age out must be excluded from future billings to ensure compliance with eligibility criteria.
  • Recommended Follow-Up: Implement stronger monitoring controls to prevent errors related to ineligible recipients and ensure accurate reimbursement requests.

Finding Text

Criteria: Recipients who become ineligible due to aging out should be identified at the time of ineligibility and be excluded from future billings. Condition: Management did not identify an ineligibile recipient in a timely manner, resulting in an ineligible receipient receiving funding through the School Readiness program. Cause: Lack of appropriate monitoring over eligibility requirements for recipients. Effect: Management included the ineligible receipient in reimbursement requests and received funding for the same recipient. Questioned costs: A sample of 40 items was tested in which 1 item did not meet the eligibility criteria for grant reimbursement. This error resulted in improper reimbursement of $1,948. This error was extrapolated to the sample population which resulted in total questioned costs of $277,342. Recommendation: We recommend that management implement controls to prevent or detect and correct errors resulting from ineligible recipients receiving funding.Views of responsible officials and planned corrective actions: Management agrees with this finding based on the above criterion. Please refer to the Corrective Action Plan.

Corrective Action Plan

Correction Action: Management determined that this recipient was ineligible during the program year and changed their status to inactive. However, new staff did not process reimbursement for the overpayment. To address this, management has improved its quality assurance procedures by having personnel run monthly eligibility reports to identify recipients whose ages fall outside acceptable ranges prior to submitting the monthly invoice. Any ineligible recipients who have not been terminated will be promptly removed from service and excluded from the monthly invoice. The quality assurance team will also evaluate any potential overpayments that may have occurred and, if necessary, will apply refunds as credits on the next invoice to the Division of Early Learning. In relation to the issue mentioned in this finding, management has recorded the amount of $1,947.06 as a credit on a Prior Year 23-24 Invoice in the 5045 report and has processed this amount for repayment to the Division of Early Learning as of September 13, 2024. Management conducted a thorough review of the identified eligibility issue and found only two cases among all enrolled participants. The total claims billed after the age-out date that remain unpaid amounted to $4,503.69 for both instances during the fiscal year. These amounts have been submitted to the Division of Early Learning for repayment.

Categories

Eligibility Subrecipient Monitoring Cash Management

Other Findings in this Audit

Programs in Audit

ALN Program Name Expenditures
93.558 Temporary Assistance for Needy Families $4.27M
93.596 Preschool Development Grants $3.94M
93.600 Head Start $3.25M
10.558 Child and Adult Care Food Program $1.12M
93.596 Precshool Development Grants $968,141
93.575 Child Care and Development Block Grant $375,307
93.667 Social Services Block Grant $12,102