Finding Text
Material Weakness in Internal Control over Compliance and Noncompliance - Eligibility Requirement IDENTIFICATION OF FEDERAL PROGRAM: 64.033 VA Support Services for Veteran Families Program Award 20-AK-152 Department of Veterans Affairs. CRITERIA: Per the SSVF Program Guide, each participant household's file must include documentation verifying that the participant meets SSVF program eligibility requirements and specifying the participant's category of “occupying permanent housing.” Grantees with insufficient case file documentation may be found out of compliance with SSVF Program regulations during a VA monitoring visit. Grantees
must develop policies and procedures that ensure appropriate documentation is obtained and included in participants’ files. To become a participant household under the SSVF Program, the following conditions must be met:
1. A member of a "Veteran family": Either (a) a Veteran; or (b) a member of a family in which the
head of household, or the spouse of the head of household, is a Veteran.
2. "Very low-income": Household income does not exceed 50 percent of area median income. Unless VA
announces otherwise in the NOFA, the median income for an area or community will be determined
using the income limits most recently published by the Department of Housing and Urban Development
for programs under section 8 of the United States Housing Act of 1937 (42 U.S.C. 1437f), which can
be found at: http://www.huduser.org/portal/datasets/il.html
3. "Occupying Permanent Housing": A very low-income Veteran family is considered to be “occupying permanent housing” if they fall into one of three categories:
(Category 1) Is residing in permanent housing and at risk of becoming literally homeless but for grantee’s assistance; (Category 2) Is literally homeless, and at risk to remain in this situation but for grantee’s assistance, and scheduled to become a resident of permanent housing within 90 days pending the location or development of housing suitable for permanent housing; or (Category 3) Is literally homeless after exiting permanent housing to seek other housing that is responsive to the very low-income Veteran family’s needs and preferences. CONDITION: The Mission was unable to provide complete records documenting that participants met all of the eligibility requirements. EFFECT OR POTENTIAL EFFECT: The Mission’s current management was unable to provide records showing that participant files were complete. QUESTIONED COSTS: None. CONTEXT: For this funding, there were 156 participants who received benefits through the SSVF program during the fiscal year under audit. During the single audit testwork the auditors selected a random sample of 16 participant files to test against eligibility requirements. Of those 16 participants, 8 of them did not have complete documentation supporting that the participants met all of the eligibility requirements. IDENTIFICATION OF REPEAT FINDING: Not Applicable. RECOMMENDATION: We recommend that as a part of the Mission’s internal control structure over compliance with eligibility requirements to establish monitoring procedures to ensure federal reporting deadlines are met and proof of submission and reports submitted are maintained. VIEWS OF RESPONSBLE OFFICIALS: See Corrective Action Plan.