Finding Text
2022-003 – Unsupported Expenses
Significant Deficiency
(A) Activities Allowed or Unallowed
(B) Allowable Costs/Cost Principles
Criteria: HOPWA funds may be used to assist all forms of housing designed to prevent homelessness. Disbursements should be supported by verifiable audit evidence.
Condition: Disbursements were not supported by complete and verifiable evidence. The following errors were noted:
1-- Check amount did not agree with invoice amount for mileage reimbursement,
1 -- Missing or incomplete documentation
1 -- Check request was not signed by supervisor
1 – Check did not clear the bank within a reasonable time
Cause: The shift to remote work and varying levels of technical knowledge among staff on digital recordkeeping as a result of the COVID crisis resulted in inconsistencies in saving data and caused some files to be overwritten.
Effect: Disbursements might have been made for unallowable activities or in violation of cost principles.
Questioned Costs: None
Context: 40 disbursements were reviewed out of a population of 1102.
Identification of a Repeat Finding: This is a repeat finding from the immediate previous audit, 2021-004.
Recommendation: We recommend that management improve internal controls over disbursements and supporting documentation to ensure that all necessary information is included in the client files. We also recommend that reconciliations be reviewed to determine that all checks have cleared and that there is follow-up on any that have not cleared within a reasonable time.
Management’s View: We agree with this finding and have outlined our response in our Corrective Action Plan.