Recurring Findings

Community Services & Development: Recurring Significant Internal Control Deficiencies
Federal Program Issue First Year Reported
Department's Assertion Page Number
Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Community Services lacks adequate internal controls to ensure proper federal reporting requirements are met. Community Services' written procedures do not include steps to reconcile the federal share of program outlays from spreadsheets to official accounting records. 2006-07
CSD stated that it implemented a monthly process which reconciles the internally developed spreadsheets to the official accounting records (CALSTARS). In addition to the implementation of the reconciliation process, the Accounting Unit has gone back and reconciled all internal spreadsheets to the CALSTARS reports for the past five years. This includes making any corrections that were needed. However, although CSD states that it has taken corrective actions, our review indicated that as of November 2010, it still had not drafted procedures and could not demonstrate how accounting records reconciled to its internally developed spreadsheets. 58
Low-Income Home Energy Assistance ADP charged expenditures totaling $7,640 to the federal fiscal year 2008 grant after the period of availability. ADP stated that it received guidance from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration regarding the timing for the expenditure of grant funds. However, ADP could not provide documentation to support this assertion. 2008-09
ADP agrees with the BSA's finding and recommendation that ADP should ensure its staff follows established policies and procedures to avoid charging expenditures outside the period of availability. ADP has corrected the errors in its accounting records and has initiated a refund to the federal government to cover the amount of the questioned costs. As indicated in BSA's finding, ADP has provided additional training and implemented procedures to ensure its staff avoid charging expenditures outside the period of availability in the future. 54