Finding Text
Federal Program Title: U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)
Passed through the State of California Department of Education 10.553/10.555 Child Nutrition Cluster
Award: A1960Z 7/1/22-6/30/23
Finding 2023-001—Verification Population
Criteria or specific requirements
Section III, P. of the grant agreement from the California Department of Education Nutrition Services Division Permanent Single Agreement, states that verification must be completed on Household meals Benefit Applications as specified by Child Nutrition Program (CNP) regulations and guidance. Local Education Agency (LEA) must select the sample by the lesser of 3% or 3000 of the approved applications on file as of October 1, selected from error prone applications.
Condition
While gaining our understanding of controls over verification, management noted that they rely on their internal software, Paradox, to tally the number of applications on file as of October 1, as well as any reports considered error prone. The system does not print out a report to list out all applications and management was unable to reproduce any report to show the total number of applications to agree to the tallied applications from the Paradox system as of October 1. The Paradox system is based on the application entered into the system by the SNP Personnel.
Cause
Management has become reliant on its system to perform controls.
Effect or potential effect
The wrong number of students could be verified resulting in noncompliance.
Questioned costs
None.
Context
Although we were able to see that management did perform a verification sample, we could not get comfortable with the number of approved applications on file as of October 1 and, therefore, could not determine if management tested the required number of applications.
Repeat finding
No.
Recommendation
We recommend that SNP maintain a report of all applications from the Paradox system as of October 1 and review to ensure they have a complete population to perform their verification test.
Views of Responsible Officials
Management agrees with the finding. See corrective action plan.