Finding Text
Federal Program: Health Centers Program Cluster
Assistance Listing Number: 93.224/93.527
Federal Agency: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Award Number: N/A
Award Year: 2023
Compliance Requirement: Reporting
Questioned Costs: There are no questioned costs associated with this finding.
Criteria: The Organization is required to submit quarterly Federal Cash Transaction Reports within 30 days of the end of each calendar quarter. The Organization also has requirements to submit various reports for performance and special reporting throughout the year. Performance and special reporting deadlines vary by grant, as some require a one time submission, while others may have semi-annual or quarterly reporting requirements.
Condition and Context: The Organization was required to submit twenty-five reports during its fiscal year ended March 31, 2023, which comprised four financial reports and twenty-one performance reports. Eight of the performance reports were not filed timely. Furthermore, two of the eight late filings were not submitted yet as of the end of the fiscal year. This is a late submission rate of 32% overall, and 38% on performance reports only. Reports that were filed late ranged from being four days late up to fifty-one days late.
Effect: The Organization did not comply with the reporting requirements for the submission of its performance reports for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2023.
Cause: The Organization did not file these reports timely due to an oversight by management and turnover within the accounting department during the fiscal year.
Recommendation: The Organization should implement procedures to identify and ensure compliance with all reporting requirements for each project.
Views of Responsible Officials and Planned Correction: In September of 2022, the Chief Financial Officer left the health center, and a replacement was not hired until February 20, 2023, a month before the end of the fiscal year on March 31, 2023. While the accounting staff have been with the health center for more than three years, they lacked guidance while the search for a replacement Chief Financial Officer was going on. The accounting staff were not trained in HRSA grant reporting and this led to missing the grant reporting due dates. The new Chief Financial Officer is experienced in HRSA grants reporting and has put in place a tracking system for all grants including HRSA Federal grants so that lapses in grants reporting do not happen again. This finding has since been resolved and there will never be a reoccurrence in future.