AmeriCorps has been unable to produce auditable financial statements for the last six years. This year, independent auditors again issued a disclaimer of opinion, reporting 12 material weaknesses and two significant deficiencies. Ten of the material weaknesses are recurring, four of them since FY 2017, five since FY 2018, and one since FY 2021. The auditors reported two new material weaknesses: (1) Knowledge Gap throughout Financial Management Operations and (2) Advances from Others. Further, the financial statements and accompanying notes were not in accordance with U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles and Office of Management and Budget Circular A-136 and contained mathematical errors and inconsistencies. The repeated audit opinion disclaimers reflect AmeriCorps’ lack of leadership with relevant Federal financial management knowledge and skills. In recognition of the pervasive weaknesses, AmeriCorps included in its Annual Management Report (AMR) a Statement of No Assurance, acknowledging that the agency could not provide reasonable assurance as to the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting, operations, including programmatic operations, and compliance with laws. This is the third year that AmeriCorps has issued a No Assurance statement. Remedial actions by AmeriCorps have closed 12 of the 73 recommendations from prior financial statement audits. The remaining recommendations continue to be valid, three in modified form. The auditors also made 18 new recommendations, for a total of 76 outstanding. AmeriCorps’ response to the audit report did not address the findings and recommendations in detail but reiterated the agency’s commitment to strengthening financial management. The independent accounting firm RMA Associates LLC performed the audit of the AmeriCorps FY 2022 consolidated financial statements, under contract with AmeriCorps-OIG.
Open Recommendations
| Recommendation Number | Significant Recommendation | Recommended Questioned Costs | Recommended Funds for Better Use | Additional Details | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | No | $0 | $0 | ||
| Complete a detailed performance diagnostic and gap analysis on AmeriCorps’ financial management personnel, processes, and systems, including a root cause analysis, and then develop, design, and implement a plan toward short- and long-term executable goals. | |||||
| 2 | No | $0 | $0 | ||
| Perform intermediate assessments of the effectiveness of its executed plans and final evaluations of its financial management operations to ensure desired results are achieved. | |||||
| 5 | No | $0 | $0 | ||
| Develop a process to understand the root causes and conditions behind each control deficiency and the discrepancies between the control deficiencies identified by AmeriCorps’ internal control testing and those reported by the external auditors. The document should consider the information presented to the Risk Management Council and their decisions, as well as any other considerations used in determining the classification of the control deficiency. Furthermore, this understanding should be used to develop and implement CAPs to address the deficiencies. | |||||
| 6 | No | $0 | $0 | ||
| Require each department head to be responsible and accountable for timely developing and implementing CAPs and require each department’s staff to test the design and effectiveness of each CAP as implemented to ensure that it achieves the desired results. | |||||
| 7 | No | $0 | $0 | ||
| Revise the Business Process Narratives to incorporate significant changes in the current financial and control environment. | |||||
| 8 | No | $0 | $0 | ||
| Develop and implement effective controls, including a quality assurance process, necessary to ensure that: | |||||
| 8a | No | $0 | $0 | ||
| accounting and reporting are in accordance with U.S. GAAP and financial information is presented in compliance with OMB Circular A-136. | |||||
| 8b | No | $0 | $0 | ||
| account balances are accurate as of and through the reporting period. | |||||
| 8c | No | $0 | $0 | ||
| the proper validation, review, and approval over financial reporting and the AMR compilation. | |||||
| 9 | No | $0 | $0 | ||
| Develop, identify and make available the training necessary to ensure that staff obtain and update the skills necessary to ensure compliance with: (New) | |||||
| 9a | No | $0 | $0 | ||
| FASAB concept and accounting standards. | |||||
| 9b | No | $0 | $0 | ||
| OMB A-123. | |||||
| 9c | No | $0 | $0 | ||
| OMB A-136. | |||||
| 9d | No | $0 | $0 | ||
| GAO Disclosure checklist. | |||||
| 9e | No | $0 | $0 | ||
| Treasury’s U.S. Standard General Ledger annual update. | |||||
| 9f | No | $0 | $0 | ||
| the correct use of the Business Event Transaction Codes (BETC) when submitting transactions to Treasury. | |||||
| 10 | No | $0 | $0 | ||
| Develop and implement financial reporting internal controls to analyze and address the root causes of the need for journal entries and the corrective actions in financial management systems to reduce the necessity of future journal entries. | |||||
| 11 | No | $0 | $0 | ||
| Determine the root cause behind the differences noted in the UDO balance derived from the procurement documents and the expenditures and the recorded GL amount and take the appropriate steps in resolving the reason behind the variances that are occurring. | |||||
| 12 | No | $0 | $0 | ||
| Strengthen controls to ensure proper authorization signatures on all contracts and amendments that require bi-lateral signatures for the proper execution of the award. | |||||
| 13 | No | $0 | $0 | ||
| Develop and implement its Accounts Payable (AP) accrual methodology and perform tests of design and effectiveness over its UDO and AP accrual process. | |||||
| 14 | No | $0 | $0 | ||
| Verify and validate the underlying input data to the TOLM. | |||||
| 15 | No | $0 | $0 | ||
| After the verification and validation, reassess its assumptions and consider expanding the subjective elements of the calculation (i.e., those based on changes to the economy and the job market) to include changes in the way awards are utilized. | |||||
| 16 | No | $0 | $0 | ||
| Establish a requirement for the Office of Grant Administration (OGA) or an appropriate AmeriCorps official to prepare a summary report, as part of the closeout process, verifying all required grantee information has been received and accepted, and the recovery amount reconciles to the underlying support (e.g., Notice of Grant Award for de-obligation, Final Federal Financial Report, Payment Management Services, etc.). | |||||
| 17 | No | $0 | $0 | ||
| Develop and implement financial reporting internal controls to analyze and address the root causes of the reconciliation errors. | |||||
| 18 | No | $0 | $0 | ||
| Revamp the grant accrual processes to include internal controls such as reconciliations, calculation documentation, quality control reviews, and basis for the accrual methodologies to mitigate the risk of error. (Modified Repeat) | |||||
| 19 | No | $0 | $0 | ||
| Provide training to all personnel involved in the grant processing to ensure proper classification of funds in the Oracle system and ensure timely resolution of the variances between identified between the Momentum, Oracle, and PMS systems. | |||||
| 20 | No | $0 | $0 | ||
| Develop standard operating procedures to ensure all balances recorded in the Reimbursable Analysis are supported by underlying source documentation (e.g., invoices). | |||||
| 21 | No | $0 | $0 | ||
| Assess the training necessary to ensure advance liquidations are properly maintained, documented, and are readily available for examination. | |||||
