Finding Text
2023-004 U.S. Department of the Treasury, Assistance Listing #21.027, State and Local Fiscal Recovery Fund for the year July 1, 2022 through June 30, 2023
Criteria: The City of Augusta is required to submit annual reports of project expenditures for the State and Local Fiscal Recovery Fund for the period of April 1st through March 31st. The reports detail out cumulative obligation and expenditures and current period obligations and expenditures by budgeted project. The annual report for the year ending March 31, 2023 was due June 30, 2023.
Condition: The annual report due June 30, 2023 was not submitted to Treasury.gov until August 30, 2023. In addition, current period obligations and expenditures included fiscal year 2022 activity. Only fiscal year 2023 expenditures and obligations should be reported in the current period line item.
Cause: During a period of staff turnover at the City there was no third party review of reporting prior to submitting reports to Treasury.gov to ensure accuracy and completeness of the reported expenditures.
Effect: Expenditures reported to Treasury.gov were reported late, therefore they weren’t included in the Treasury’s public reporting of State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds through March 31, 2023. In addition, current period expenditures were over reported to the Treasury.
Recommendation: It is our recommendation that controls be established to assign backup reporting personnel and to create a report tracking mechanism to ensure that required reporting is completed within the report deadline. We also recommend that another individual within the accounting department review Federal reports for accuracy and completeness prior to submission.