Finding 574755 (2024-002)

Identification of the Federal Program: Federal Agency and Program Name: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Hospital Preparedness Program (HPP) Ebola Preparedness and Response Activities Award Year(s): 2024 Assistance Listing #: 93.817 Criteria or Specific Requirement (Including Statutory, Regulatory or Other Citation): 2 CFR 200.303 requires that the non-Federal entity must “(a) establish and maintain effective internal control over the Federal award that provides reasonable assurance that the non-Federal entity is managing the Federal award in compliance with Federal statutes, regulations and the terms and conditions of the Federal award. These internal controls should be in compliance with guidance in “Standards for Internal Control in the Federal Government” issued by the Comptroller General of the United States and the “Internal Control Integrated Framework”, issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO).” 2 CFR section 200.328(c) requires that recipients of Federal funding “must submit financial reports as required by the Federal award.” Condition: For one of the two Federal Financial Reports (FFRs) submitted in FY 2024, incorrect project/grant period dates and federal share of expenditures amount was reported in the FFR. Cause: Corewell did not have sufficient internal controls to follow the FFR instructions and report the correct amounts. Effect or Potential Effect: The information reported and provided to the Federal awarding agency could be incomplete or inaccurate. Questioned Costs: None Context: Corewell submitted 2 FFR reports in FY 2024. The FFR instructions required reporting the cumulative Federal share of expenditures amount ($2,253,211) from the date of inception of the award (9/30/2022) through the end date of the reporting period specified. However, Corewell reported only the current period expenditures ($933,054) for the current grant year and consequently, this error also resulted in incorrect amount reported for Unliquidated balance of Federal funds. The total federal expenditures for HPP for FY 2024 were $1,292,999. Identification as a Repeat Finding: This is not a repeat finding.Recommendation: We recommend management strengthen its internal controls and procedures over review of the data in the FFR prior to submission of the report(s). Views of Responsible Officials: Management will develop a written protocol and tracking matrix to record and track all federally funded projects that report through the Payment Management System (PMS) to ensure the correct period of performance report is created and a second level of review performed on a timely basis in accordance with sponsor requirements prior to submission.