Finding 950985 (2023-003)

1. FINDING NUMBER:14 2023 - 003 2. THIS FINDING IS: X New Repeat from Prior year? Year originally reported? 3. Federal Program Name and Year: Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) Fund - PY 2023 4. Project No.: 23-4998-E3 5. AL No.: 84.425 6. Passed Through: Illinois State Board of Education 7. Federal Agency: Department of Education 8. Criteria or specific requirement (including statutory, regulatory, or other citation) The District is required to effectively operate internal controls to ensure that expenditures claimed under the Education Stabilization Fund are for Activities Allowed under the award. 9. Condition15 Audit procedures identified that during fiscal year 2023, the District claimed four construction related invoices that amounted to $1,257,867 of ESSER III award expenditures that were previously claimed under fiscal year 2022 ESSER award reimbursement claims and were reported on the fiscal year 2022 Schedule of Expenditures of Federal Awards. The District was able to identify alternate invoices that where for allowable costs within the existing grant agreement and were not previously claimed. The District's internal controls did not initially identify that the same expenditure was claimed twice under the federal award for reimbursement. 10. Questioned Costs16 No reportable questioned costs were identified as the District provided alternate invoices that were allowable within the approved federal award agreement and were not previously claimed. 11. Context17 Based upon the testing procedure performed this appears to be an isolated instance. 12. Effect The District requested reimbursement of $1,257,867 in ESSER expenditures that were previously claimed for reimbursement during fiscal year 2022 which initially resulted in the same expenditure being used for two reimbursement requests. The District was able to identify alternate expenditures that were allowable under the award agreement to avoid questioned costs under the award. 13. Cause The District's internal controls failed to detect that the expenditures claimed have already been submitted for reimbursement in prior fiscal year. 14. Recommendation We recommend that the District perform a review of supporting documentation for expenditures claimed during a reimbursement request to ensure that expenditures claimed for reimbursement are for allowable costs that have not been previously claimed for reimbursement. 15. Management's response18 See Corrective Action Plan. 14 See footnote 11. 15 Include facts that support the deficiency identified on the audit finding (§200.516 (b)(3)). 16 Identify questioned costs as required by §200.516 (a)(3 - 4). 17 See footnote 12. 18 To the extent practical, indicate when management does not agree with the finding, questioned cost, or both.