Finding Text
Assistance Listing Number, Federal Agency, and Program Name -
10.555 and 10.553, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Child Nutrition Cluster
Federal Award Identification Number and Year - 211971, 221971, 221970,
231970,211961,221960,221961,220910,2023
Pass-through Entity - Michigan Department of Education
Finding Type - Significant deficiency
Repeat Finding - No
Criteria - Upon preparation of meal reimbursement claims for meals served,
a separate review ensuring the accuracy of the request for reimbursement,
submitted to drawdown funds, is an important part of internal control process
that reduces the risk of errors in reporting.
Condition - The Michigan Nutrition Data (MiND) system auto calculates the
number of full-paid meals after the district enters the free, reduced, and total
number of meals. Therefore, if the number of free or reduced meals is typed
incorrectly, the difference automatically adds or subtracts to the number of
full-paid meals. While there is review and approval of amounts prior to
entering meal counts into the MiND system, the School District did not
consider that, once free and reduced meals are entered into the system, the
number of full-pay meals autofills to the number required to match/balance
the total meals served. This resulted in the School District not identifying that
two claims requests undercounted reimbursable meals, which shorted the
School District receiving additional funding of $7,639.
Questioned Costs - None
Identification of How Questioned Costs Were Computed - N/A
Context - It was noted that the School District incorrectly submitted for
reimbursement of the meals served in two months of four months tested.
Cause and Effect - The absence of a secondary review of the final data,
including the auto-calculated data, in the MiND system resulted in the School
District being reimbursed for an amount less than the actual meals served.
Recommendation - The School District should implement a procedure to
ensure there is an additional separate review and documented approval of
the final claims data after entry into the MiND system to ensure it agrees with
the School District's internal meal claims data report.
Views of Responsible Officials and Corrective Action Plan - After an indepth
review of the circumstances that led to the incorrect (under count)
request for meal reimbursement error, an additional review and approval
procedure has been implemented. This will ensure the final meal claims data,
including the MiND system auto-calculated data, reflects the School District's
internal meal count data reporting.