Finding Text
Identification of the Federal Program: Federal Assistance Listing Number 93.498 US Department of Health and Human Services COVID-19 Provider Relief Fund and American Rescue Plan (ARP) Rural Distribution - Reporting - Material Weakness in Internal Control Over Compliance Criteria: 2 CFR 200.303(a) establishes that the auditee must establish and maintain effective internal control over the federal award that provides assurance that the entity is managing the federal award in compliance with federal statutes, regulations, and conditions of the federal award. The terms and conditions of the CARES Act Provider Relief Fund (PRF) distributions state that funds are to only be used to prevent, prepare for, and respond to coronavirus, and that funds may only be used for healthcare related expenses or lost revenue that is attributable to the coronavirus. The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) provided guidance on how an organization was to report usage of PRF distributions received. Period 4 reporting required an organization to illustrate how PRF and ARP funds received were used. An organization was allowed to include eligible expenditures from January 1, 2020 through December 31, 2022 depending on the period reporting. Condition: During the process of identifying expenses that were incurred to prevent, prepare for, or respond to the coronavirus pandemic, management properly incurred and reported reflected expenses within the period of availability; however, the quarterly expenses reported on the portal submission did not reflect the actual quarter in which the expenses were incurred. Cause: Due to oversight by accounting and financial reporting personnel during the submission review process and the amount of detailed information that was required to be compiled by management to enter data into the PRF reporting portal, management inadvertently reported expenses incurred in incorrect quarters on the reporting portal submission; however, the expenses in total were appropriate. Effect: Management reported amounts in the PRF reporting portal in incorrect quarters, although the expenses were all incurred within the correct period of availability. Questioned Costs: None reported. This error is a deficiency in the Organization?s internal control over the review of the portal submission.