Finding Text
Criteria: The Education Stabilization Fund (ESSER) program requires annual and quarterly reports, which should be approved by the School’s management before submission.
Statement of Condition: The quarterly report filings are being completed and submitted by the School’s outsourced accounting firm. However, from review of the report filings, there is no documentation that the reports are being reviewed and approved by the School’s Principal/CAO before being submitted. The annual report is completed by Sylvan; however, there is no formal review performed by the School’s Principal/CAO.
Statement of Cause: The School did not have proper internal control procedures in place to ensure a review and approval was completed before submission of reports.
Possible Asserted Effect: Reports may not be completed and filed accurately with the federal agency.
Questioned Costs: None noted.
Context: Reviewed three quarterly filings for ESSER programs during the 2023-2024 year and the 2022-2023 US Department of Education annual report.
Repeat Finding: Not a repeat finding.
Recommendation: The School should enhance internal control procedures to ensure all reports are approved and documented by the School’s management prior to submission.
Views of responsible officials and planned corrective actions: The School had established processes to ensure the accuracy of required reports. For the PDE Reconciliation of Cash on Hand Quarterly Reports, all filings were reviewed with management immediately following submission. Given the low risk of material misstatement associated with these reports, the existing procedures were effective in ensuring compliance. For the annual report, management conducted all reviews, discussions and approvals prior to submission; however, the review process was not formally documented. To strengthen internal controls, the School will implement a process to
ensure that all reviews and approvals are documented in advance of submission. This will provide clear evidence of oversight while maintaining the efficiency of the reporting process. This is further evidenced by the Principal/CAO providing documented approval of the most recent report submission.