Finding Text
Material Weakness
Material Noncompliance
Program: Assistance Listing 84.010A - Title I Grants To Local Educational Agencies
Assistance Listing: 84.027/84.027X/84.173/84.173X – Special Education Cluster (IDEA)
Assistance Listing: 84.425D– Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund
(ESSER II)
Assistance Listing: 84.425U– Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund
(ARP ESSER)
Repeat Finding: Yes
Criteria: 2 CFR 200.302 and 2 CFR 200.303 outline key requirements for non-federal entities managing
federal awards. Section 200.302 mandates that a financial management system be in place to
prepare reports as required by both general and program-specific terms and conditions. It also
requires tracing funds to a level of expenditure that demonstrates compliance with federal
statutes, regulations, and the terms of the federal award, including comparing expenditures with
the budget for each federal award. Section 200.303 requires non-federal entities to establish and
maintain effective internal controls over federal awards, ensuring reasonable assurance that the
entity is managing the award in compliance with federal laws, regulations, and the award's terms
and conditions.
Condition: The District’s internal controls over budgeting for federal grants are insufficient to ensure
compliance with federal regulations and to stay within the budgetary limits established by the
federal awards, as specified in the Mississippi Comprehensive Automated Performance-based
System (MCAPS), administered through the Mississippi Department of Education. Specifically,
the District has not adequately adhered to budgeting restraints outlined for its federal grants.
Our audit procedures identified the following instances where actual expenditures appear to
exceed the budgeted amounts:
Six-line items in the ARP ESSER grant, totaling $115,645.51.
Five-line items in the ESSER II grant, totaling $31,135.42
Three-line items in the Special Education IDEA Part B grant, totaling $9,474.44.
One-line item in the Title I, Part A grant, totaling $8,640.88.
Context/
Perspective: This finding is a result of our budget to actual comparisons for federal grant purposes of major
programs and the conditions cited appear to be a systematic issue.
Cause: The District did not properly monitor budget limits established in MCAPS to ensure that
budgeting requirements were fulfilled.
Effect: Failure to remain within established budget limits in MCAPS could affect future eligibility for
federal award programs or result in a loss or misappropriation of public assets.
Questioned Costs: $146,780.93 (ESSER II and ARP ESSER)
Recommendation: The District should establish additional internal controls to ensure that it remains within budget
limits for each grant maintained in MCAPS.
Views of
Responsible
Officials: The Auditee’s Corrective Action Plan lists the District’s response to the findings.