Finding Text
U.S. Department of Agriculture Passed through Michigan Department of Education Child Nutrition Cluster ? COVID-19 School Breakfast Program #10.553, National School Lunch Program #10.555, Summer Food Service Program for Children #10.559 #2022-003 ? Significant Deficiency in Controls over Compliance: Lack of Review over Reporting Conditions: During the 2021/2022 school year, several food service locations used paper tally sheets to document meals and snacks served to students. These tally sheets were compiled and used to submit the monthly requests for food service reimbursements under the federal grant program. During the audit, we noted instances of count sheets that had errors in the accumulation of totals, and certain other discrepancies. Management explained, and we observed that there were not review procedures in place surrounding the reporting process to the State of Michigan of lunch, breakfast, and snack student tally sheets. Criteria: Segregation of duties is key element of internal controls, including controls over compliance, and involves processes whereby the activities of one employee are reviewed or checked by the activities of another individual, and avoids one employee having the ability to perform a transaction from beginning to end. Cause/Context: Manual tally sheets were only used at locations that did not utilize the electronic system implemented elsewhere in the school system. Since the process outside of the electronic system is entirely manual, it is susceptible to human error. The errors detected during our audit were not material individually, and not material when projected to the population. However, without a review process in place, errors are likely to go undetected. Recommendations: We understand that many, if not all locations participating in the meal programs have since either reverted back to using the electronic system for counting students, or plan to do so in the near term. We recommend that any remaining manual reports/tally sheets be reviewed prior to submitting counts for reimbursement. Views of Responsible Officials and Planned Corrective Actions: ? Because student meals are no longer free in the 2022-23 school year, GRCS is returning to the electronic system for counting student meals.