Finding 612317 (2022-001)

Significant Deficiency
Requirement
L
Questioned Costs
-
Year
2022
Accepted
2023-06-15
Audit: 35418
Organization: Riverside Research Institute (VA)
Auditor: Bdo USA LLP

AI Summary

  • Core Issue: Incorrect reporting of federal expenditures in the Schedule of Expenditures of Federal Awards (SEFA) for the Advisory & Assistance Services award, leading to a misclassification of $3,119,210 in contract expenditures.
  • Impacted Requirements: Non-compliance with the Uniform Guidance under 2 CFR §200.510(b) and §200.502, which mandates accurate reporting of federal awards.
  • Recommended Follow-Up: Implement enhanced policies and procedures to ensure accurate reporting of federal expenditures on the SEFA, including additional reviews of project classifications in the accounting system.

Finding Text

Section III ? Federal Award Findings and Questioned Costs 2022-001 Internal Control over Compliance and Compliance with Reporting - Preparation of the Schedule of Expenditures of Federal Awards Information on the Major Federal Program ? General Services Administration Assistance Listing Number: 39.RD Assistance Listing Name: Advisory & Assistance Services Criteria - The Uniform Guidance in 2 CFR ?200.510 (b) states in part: ?The auditee must also prepare a schedule of expenditures of Federal awards (SEFA) for the period covered by the auditee?s financial statements which must include the total Federal awards expended as determined in accordance with CFR ?200.502 Basis for determining Federal awards expended.? Condition - Certain contract expenditures related to the Advisory & Assistance Services award with General Services Administration (GSA) were incorrectly reported in the initial SEFA. The total federal expenditures initially reported in the SEFA for this award totaled $3,719,891. However, based on testing by the auditors, contract expenditures totaling $3,119,210 were determined to not qualify for SEFA presentation based on CFR Section ?200.502 due to a certain task within the award being firm fixed price. Cause ? One task of the Advisory & Assistance Services award was incorrectly labeled as cost-reimbursable with the Organization?s accounting system. This error resulted in the Organization not following its policies and procedures in place to ensure compliance with the requirements regarding the preparation of the SEFA. Effect or Potential Effect - Failure to comply with the reporting requirements of the Uniform Guidance related to the preparation of the SEFA could result in expenses from Federal awards being inaccurately reported. Questioned Costs - None. Context - This is a condition identified based upon our review of the Organization?s compliance with specified requirements required based on CFR ?200.502. The prevalence of these findings is detailed in the condition section above. Repeat finding ? This is not a repeat finding. Recommendation ? We recommend that the Organization implement policies and procedures to ensure that Federal expenditures reported on the SEFA are properly included based on underlying Federal and award requirements. Views of Responsible Officials - Management agrees with the finding. The inclusion of the contract task was an oversight as the project type was mislabeled in the accounting system. Riverside will implement an additional review of projects created in the accounting system to ensure the reliance of the information to identify only the amount of Federal awards that are required to be reported under CFR ?200.502. Additionally, the one task of the Advisory & Assistance Services award that was the cause of the issue has been corrected within the accounting system.

Categories

Reporting Internal Control / Segregation of Duties

Other Findings in this Audit

  • 35875 2022-001
    Significant Deficiency

Programs in Audit

ALN Program Name Expenditures
12.RD Microelectronics & Embedded Systems Assurance $5.90M
12.RD Fixed Station Sensors $3.96M
12.RD Cobra Dane System Engineering & Integration Services $3.14M
12.910 Virginia Contracting Activity Nmo Dcgs $2.91M
12.RD Direct It Computational Testing & Overall Research $2.78M
15.817 Integrated Source Management - Collection Planning $2.37M
12.RD Big Safari 2 $2.28M
12.RD Alion Science & Technology $1.95M
12.RD Cgi Federal Inc. $1.88M
12.RD Technical Sensor Radar Support Program $1.84M
12.RD Other Contracts $1.83M
12.RD Bae Systems $1.74M
12.RD Advanced Novel Spectrum Warfare Environment Research $1.52M
12.RD Red Giant $1.34M
12.RD Optics, Plasma Technology & Electro-Magnetic Antenna $1.23M
12.RD Rf Analysis & Verification Engineering Software $1.20M
12.RD Mission Systems Open Architecture Science & Technology $1.19M
12.RD Zeta Associates, Inc. $1.16M
39.RD Facilities Directorate Support $1.13M
12.RD Applied Research Solutions, Inc. $925,151
12.RD Microelectronics and Embedded System Assurance (mesa) II $886,282
12.RD Multi-Sensor Integration for Autonomy & Openness $812,857
12.RD University of Dayton $764,149
12.RD Virtual Combat Lab Studies & Analysis Task $746,435
12.RD Solis Applied Science, Lls $746,341
15.RD Booz Allen Hamilton $661,245
39.RD Advisory & Assistance Services $600,690
15.RD Applied Research Associates, Inc. $493,762
39.RD Defense Innovation Unit (diu) Subject Matter Expert/engineering $394,761
12.RD Neptune $369,669
12.RD Technical Sensor Radar Support (tsrs) Program $358,503
12.RD Big Safari $337,135
93.286 Vitreo-Retinal Disease Imaging W/3d Annular-Array Ultrasound $290,511
12.RD Ball Aerospace & Technologies CORP $234,423
12.RD Systems Planning and Analysis, Inc. $190,465
12.910 Universal Composability for Preventing Adversarial Composition Techniques $162,576
12.RD University System of Georgia - Georgia Institute of Technology $154,736
15.817 Cognitive Assessment System W/physiology Integration, Analysis, and $145,967
12.RD Analytical Graphics, Inc. $144,688
12.RD Parallax Advanced Research Corporation $142,471
12.RD Clarity Cyber, LLC $96,935
12.RD Dese Research, Inc. $82,213
39.RD Remote Sensing & Command, Control, Communications & Computers $64,746
93.286 Novel In-Vivo Ultrasound-Based Poc $52,769
12.RD Peraton $41,041
12.RD Secmation, LLC $38,505
12.RD Trusted Science and Technology, Inc. $31,519
12.RD Mission Systems Open Architecture Prototyping, Experimental, Demonstration (moaped) $26,996
12.RD Research & Development in Antenna & Electromagnetic Tech $8,064
93.286 In Utero Mouse Embryo Phenotyping $7,208
93.865 Super-Resolution Nanodrop $2,760
12.RD Ussocom Regional Contracting Office $2,514
12.RD Georgia Institute of Technology $653