Finding 8117 (2023-002)

Finding 2023-002 –Report submission untimely (19.510: U.S. Refugee Admissions Program and 93.567 Refugee Entrant Assistance Voluntary Agency Program) Noncompliance Condition: We noted eight monthly reports and 1 quarterly report were not filed within the required time frame. Criteria: The USCCB agreements require Subrecipients of R&P program (19.510) and the Refugee Entrant Assistance Voluntary Agency Program (93.567) submit monthly administrative reimbursement through MRIS 45 days after the close of the month's billings. Additionally, each program is required to submit progress reports of one or all of the following to provide a quarterly R&P Cash and In-Kind report, R&P Diocesan Quarterly Narrative Report (DQNR) for each respective quarter in the MRIS database. Cause: Resignation of the program director and their lack of understanding of program requirements as well as obtaining documentation needed for submission of monthly reports caused reports to be untimely. Effect: Failure to submit reports on time inhibits cash flow for Catholic Charities and does not allow for USCCB to properly monitor program performance. Recommendation: We recommend implementing staff training on federal program reporting requirements and a tracking process that denotes report submission deadlines. View of Responsible Officials: The following are being implemented in response to the finding and address each aspect of the reporting requirement. - Report Deadline Tracking o Catholic Charities will create a shared calendar for use by the Caseworkers, Program Director, Operations Director, and Fiscal Manager to document all deadlines of required reports and staff responsible for completing the reports. o This calendar will be monitored and updated by all staff with new arrival dates, quarterly report deadlines, close of case report dates, billing dates, Match Grant enrollment dates, 180-day budget deadlines, and 240-day budget deadlines. - Trainings o The Program Director will contact the staff of United States Council of Catholic Bishops, here after referred to as USCCB, when an individual begins employment and request a login and password into the USCCB resource website, MRS Connect, which has all USCCB trainings recorded and saved for staff to review. o Within 30 days of an employee’s start date the individual will participate in all approved USCCB training on reporting requirements. - Case File Review o Within the first week of arrival, the Program Director will review a case file. o Thereafter, a weekly case file review to monitor that case files have required documentation in accordance with the federal guidelines will be completed.