Finding 527035 (2024-001)

Significant Deficiency Repeat Finding
Requirement
AB
Questioned Costs
-
Year
2024
Accepted
2025-03-14

AI Summary

  • Core Issue: The School District overpaid employees for two charges under the Child Nutrition Cluster program.
  • Impacted Requirements: Lack of internal controls over compliance with 2 CFR 200.303 & 200.430(g) increases the risk of unallowable expenses.
  • Recommended Follow-Up: Review and update the Corrective Action Plan to strengthen internal controls and ensure compliance, then submit the revised plan.

Finding Text

Federal Program Information: U. S. Department of Education Passed through the State of Vermont Agency of Education ALN: - 10.555 Child Nutrition Cluster Criteria: The following CFR(s) applies to this finding: 2 CFR 200.303 & 2 CFR section 200.430(g). Condition: During audit procedures, it was identified that the School District overpaid employees for 2 charges under this program. Cause: The School District does not have the necessary internal controls over compliance. Effect: Insufficient controls could result in unallowable expenses being charged to the program and subsequently improperly reimbursed by federal funds. Identification of Questioned Costs: None identified. Context: There were 40 payroll charges tested. It was found that the 2 employees were not paid the correct rate on 2 charges tested. This is not a statistically valid sample. Repeat Finding: This is a repeat finding. Recommendation: It is recommended that the School District review their Corrective Action Plan from last year, make necessary adjustments to include more strict procedures, and implement internal control processes and procedures to ensure that they are following the criteria above. Submit new or revised corrective action plan to us. Views of Responsible Officials and Corrective Action Plan: Please see the Corrective Action Plan issued by the Mount Mansfield Unified Union School District.

Corrective Action Plan

MMUUSD Preliminary Corrective Action Plan (Concerning Finding 2024‐001; Activities Allowed and Allowable Costs) Contact Person Responsible for Corrective Action: Nicole Fortier, Director of Finance and Operations Corrective Action: During our audit there was one instance identified where MMUUSD overpaid an employee under the Food Service program at a rate of pay different than the stated rate for a Food Service Substitute. To be more specific, the Food Service substitute rate was transposed and the employee was paid $16.62 ($0.10 more) instead of the stated substitute rate of $16.52. The first step in our corrective action plan was a review with our Senior Payroll Specialist of the error, and to reiterate the importance of verifying the correct hourly rate being input for our substitutes. This step has already been completed. Additionally, we are in the process of implementing a more thorough payroll review process, which will include a preliminary review by Christal Clark, Accountant in the Business Office. Given that the payment of substitutes is such a manual process and we cannot utilize our employee timesheet software for paying them, we will also perform periodic reviews of all substitute payments to verify that the rate of pay is in line with the Sub Pay agreement for that respective Fiscal Year. If any discrepancies are noted, the employees will be made whole ASAP. We are currently performing periodic reviews of all substitute payments to verify the correct rate of pay is being used as of January 2025. We are in the process still of developing a payroll review process that works for us and is efficient. With Christal Clark being more involved in the payroll process on a biweekly basis, we are assessing whether this should be a post‐payroll review or mid‐payroll review. Anticipated Completion Date: 07/01/2025

Categories

Allowable Costs / Cost Principles School Nutrition Programs Internal Control / Segregation of Duties

Other Findings in this Audit

  • 1103477 2024-001
    Significant Deficiency Repeat

Programs in Audit

ALN Program Name Expenditures
10.555 National School Lunch Program $2.13M
84.027 Special Education_grants to States $786,742
84.425 Education Stabilization Fund $510,051
84.367 Improving Teacher Quality State Grants $199,845
84.010 Title I Grants to Local Educational Agencies $146,782
93.959 Block Grants for Prevention and Treatment of Substance Abuse $50,000
84.173 Special Education_preschool Grants $18,083
84.196 Education for Homeless Children and Youth $9,238
93.354 Public Health Emergency Response: Cooperative Agreement for Emergency Response: Public Health Crisis Response $5,083