Finding Text
Assistance Listing, Federal Agency, and Program Name - ALN 47.074, National Science Foundation, Biological Sciences - BII: New Roots for Restoration; ALN 15.662, U.S. Department of the Interior, Great Lakes Restoration - Sturgeon Bay Ship Canal Nature Preserve Pitcher's Dune Thistle Habitat Restoration and Neighborhood Outreach Project
Federal Award Identification Number and Year - 24409-C; F20AC00354
Pass through Entity - Donald Danforth Plant Science Center; Door County Land Trust, Inc., respectively
Finding Type - Significant deficiency
Repeat Finding - No
Criteria - 2 CFR 200.303(a) - The non federal entity 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 - Two reimbursement requests submitted during 2023 did not have documentation available to indicate that the reimbursement request was reviewed by a supervisor for accuracy before submission.
Identification of How Questioned Costs Were Computed N/A
Context - A total of seven grant reimbursement requests submitted to granting agencies during 2023 were reviewed for evidence of supervisory review. Two of these reimbursement requests were missing documentation to support that supervisory review was performed.
Cause and Effect - The Society experienced significant personnel turnover during the year within its accounting and grants departments, which resulted in issues with documentation retention and records retrieval. The lack of review evidence did not result in identified noncompliance with the grant terms.
Recommendation - The Society should implement an internal review process of its record retention to ensure that evidence of internal review and approval documentation is appropriately retained in accordance with its formal policies. The Society should also consider alternative methods to document reviewer procedures in order to prevent future issues with record retention.
Views of Responsible Officials and Corrective Action Plan - Staff turnover in early 2023 resulted in a temporary lapse of documentation proving that the internal control process was followed. The Society follows its internal review process and is maintaining documentation that appropriate approvals are in place.