Finding Text
Federal Agency: U.S. Department of Agriculture
Federal Program Name: Child and Adult Care Food Program
Assistance Listing Number: 10.558
Pass-Through Agency: Feeding Our Future
Award Period: February 2021 – December 2021
Type of Finding:
• Material Weakness in Internal Control over Compliance
Criteria or specific requirement: 2 CFR section 200.303(a) requires that nonfederal entities must establish and maintain effective internal control over the Federal award that provides reasonable assurance that the non-Federal entity is managing the Federal award in compliance with Federal Statutes, regulations, and the terms and conditions of the Federal award.
Condition: Each month, the Organization provided a packet to the sponsor organization, Feeding Our Future, which contained detailed meal count sheets with names and ages of children receiving meals and days received, Clicker Reports summarizing the meal counts, and invoices from the vendor. Meal count sheets in many cases were not specifically labeled as to the month they related to, but management indicated they were part of the monthly submission. In our review of the packets we noted numerous discrepancies between the meal count sheets and Clicker reports. Meal count sheets for the year were higher than Clicker reports by approximately 43,000 meals.
Questioned costs: None
Context: We tested all monthly submissions for the St. Paul site from March-June and all monthly submissions for the St. Paul and St. Cloud sites from September-December, noting variances every month.
Cause: Management indicated that discrepancies between meal count sheets and Clicker reports were due to items returned to the vendor by families. There was no documentation of returned items, and reports were adjusted based on phone conversations with the vendor.
Effect: Clicker reports submitted for reimbursement are not in agreement with supporting documentation. There are no questioned costs related to this, since the Clicker reports were used for reimbursement and were lower than the meal count sheets.
UpRecommendation: We recommend the Organization retain clear documentation of meal count sheets, including labeling of the particular month they relate to. We also recommend the Organization reconcile the meal count sheets with the clicker reports, and retain specific documentation as to the variances.
Views of responsible officials: This program was initiated during the height of COVID, when guidelines on both state and federal levels were changing rapidly. Management provided auditors with documentation that had been approved by the sponsor organization. Management performed all activities requested by the sponsor organization and followed all the program sponsor guidelines. See the Corrective Action Plan for further details.