Jackson County, Colorado

Material Weakness, Inaccurate Schedule Of Expenditures Of Federal Awards (The SEFA)

Criteria: Title 2 U.S. Code of Federal Regulations Part 200, Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards (the Uniform Guidance) provides guidance related to preparation and reporting of a SEFA. 2 CFR Section 200.100 identifies the required elements of the SEFA, and 2 CFR Section 200.510 specifically requires that the SEFA include information on each federal award expended during the year. The County is required to prepare a complete and accurate SEFA and to have a system of internal controls, the design and operation of which allows management or employees in the normal course of performing their assigned functions to prevent, or detect and correct, errors on a timely basis.

Condition: The SEFA was incomplete and inaccurate. The County also did not report a program with total expenditures of $158,137.

Cause: The County did not have adequate training and oversight in place for accounting staff to ensure its SEFA was prepared in accordance with federal requirements.

Effect: As a result of the errors, the initial SEFA was materially incorrect. Inaccurate identification of federal awards may also result in inaccurate identification of compliance requirements, risk assessments, major program determination, materiality determinations and reporting errors.

Questioned Costs: None

Context: N/A

Identification As A Repeat Finding: N/A

Recommendation: The County should strengthen its internal controls by implementing additional training and oversight of personnel to ensure the SEFA accurately reflects all federal expenditures for the fiscal year.

Views Of Responsible Officials And Planned Corrective Action: The County agrees with the finding and has created a corrective action plan for the finding. See the corrective action plan included in this report.

Material Weakness, Internal Control Over Compliance, Allowable Costs & Activities, Reporting

ALN 21.032: Local Assistance And Tribal Consistency Fund Federal Agency: U.S. Department Of Treasury Pass-Through Entity: N/A

Criteria Or Specific Requirement: The Local Assistance and Tribal Consistency Fund (LATCF) was established to provide funding for counties and Tribal governments for revenue enhancement. Recipients are required to determine allowable costs and activities as well as submit periodic reports to the awarding agency on elements including financial data, projects funded, expenditures, and certain contracts and subawards.

Condition: In our audit, we noted the County did not have a documented review process over the determination of allowable costs and activities or over the submission of the Obligation and Expenditure report.

Cause: The County did not have an internal controls process in place over federal grant requirements related to allowable costs and activities and reporting of LATCF expenditures.

Effect: Without sufficient documentation and monitoring controls, the County may not timely detect an error in allowable costs and activities or reporting requirements.

Identification As A Repeat Finding: N/A

Recommendation: We recommend the County improve its internal controls by documenting a review process over allowable costs and activities determinations and over Obligation and Expenditure reports submissions by a person that did not prepare the information related to the key aspects of the report.

Views Of Responsible Officials And Planned Corrective Action: The County agrees with the finding and has put together a correction action plan for the finding. See corrective action plan included in this report.