Auditor recommendation: The auditor recommends that the City implement a final review for potential duplicated costs prior to approving reimbursement requests, and adjust the general ledger for any such items noted.
Views of Responsible Officials and Planned Correcve Acon: The City agrees with this finding. A reimbursement request was submied 3/18/24 in the amount of $634,532.45. It was later idenfied that the reimbursement request included duplicate payroll expenditures in the amount of $2,694. One of the duplicated items, totaling $1,115, was idenfied through internal review within the City of Santa Fe aer the reimbursement request was submied. A credit memo has been processed in the FAA’s Delphi system and the City has repaid the $1,115 amount that was duplicated. The other item, totaling $1,579, was idenfied through the external audit. The City will process an addional credit memo and repay the $1,579 amount promptly.
The Finance Director, the Accounng Officer, and the Grants team are working with the Airport team to strengthen policies and procedures and ensure a full review of the general ledger for the federal program to ensure no duplicate costs are charged prior to reimbursement requests being submied. A secondary review by the Finance Department of all Airport requests for reimbursement is now occurring prior to submission to FAA. In addion, we have started using employee pay advices as addional supporng documentaon for reimbursement requests. In the past excel spreadsheets were used as supporng documentaon, and the Finance Department review somemes happened aer the reimbursement request was submied.
Vacancies in key posions resulted in a lack of robust review of reimbursement requests prior to submission. These key posions have now been filled. The City now has an Airport Manager with substanal experience managing municipal airports and overseeing federal funding for airports. The Accounng Officer, Grants Manager and Accounng Financial Analyst posions in the Finance Department have been filled, and the Grants Division is now fully staffed. More robust staffing is allowing Finance to work more closely with the Airport team. One of the primary dues of the new Accounng Financial Analyst in the Grants Division is to support the administraon of Airport grants.
The City is in the process of contracng with a vendor to assist the Airport with federal compliance and provide training for Airport staff on relevant Uniform Guidance requirements. The vendor’s scope of work will include helping with developing and documenng policies and standard operang procedures for requests for reimbursement. Addionally, the Airport Department plans to create a Grant Accountant posion which will be responsible for reconciling grant expenditures monthly and processing reimbursement requests quarterly. The Finance Department will connue to perform a secondary review of Airport requests for reimbursement prior to submission to FAA.
In CY25 the City plans to provide Uniform Guidance training for staff which will include internal controls related to acvies allowed and allowable costs.
Responsible Official: Emily Oster, Finance Director, James Harris, Airport Manager, Matthew Bonifer, Accounting Officer, Erika Lujan, Grants Manager
Timeline and Esmated Compleon Date: June 30, 2025