Finding Text
Federal Agency: U.S. Department of Education
Federal Program Name: Special Education Cluster
Assistance Listing Number: 84.027, 84.173
Pass-Through Agency: Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
Pass-Through Number(s): 240-542976-2022-0308, 240-689599-2023-0308, 240-000558-2024-0308,
252-546624-2022-0308, 274-000662-2024-0308, 262-689600-2023-0308, 262-000559-2024-0308, and
264-547238-2022-0308
Award Period: July 1, 2023 - June 30, 2024
Type of Finding:
• Material Weakness in Internal Control over Compliance
• Material Noncompliance (Qualified Opinion)
Criteria or specific requirement: 2 CFR Part 200 Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Award requires compliance with the provisions of procurement, suspension, and debarment. The City of Waltham, Massachusetts should have internal controls designed to ensure compliance with those provisions.
Condition: Internal controls were not in place to ensure proper federal procurement standards were being followed for transactions that were transferred to the federal grant.
Questioned costs: $320,294
Context: For 2 instances of the 5 contracts tested, we identified that expenses were transferred to a federal grant and the underlying contracts were not in compliance with federal procurement requirements.
Cause: Procedures are not in place to ensure proper federal procurement standards were being met prior to transferring expenses to a federal grant.
Effect: Noncompliance with federal procurement compliance requirements.
Repeat Finding: No.
Recommendation: We recommend management implement procedures to ensure expenses transferred to a federal grant are meeting federal procurement standards.
Views of responsible officials: There is no disagreement with the audit finding.