The evaluation of AmeriCorps grants awarded to the Maine Commission for Community Service (the Commission) and one of its 14 subgrantees (LearningWorks) identified questioned Federal costs of $254,014, questioned match costs of $592,737, and compliance findings, covering the three years beginning January 1, 2016. The questioned costs arose from insufficient support for the valuations attached to in-kind claimed for contributed classroom and office space and labor donated by participating schools.The Commission and LearningWorks responded jointly to address the report’s findings and recommendations. The Commission agreed to improve its subgrantee monitoring and to train its staff regarding how to support in-kind match contributions. LearningWorks continues to assert that it properly valued and supported the in-kind match donations but nevertheless agreed to improve its documentation. AmeriCorps generally concurred with our recommendations and will resolve the questioned costs during audit resolution. Further, AmeriCorps promised to work with the Commission to strengthen its internal controls surrounding acceptable in-kind documentation from its subgrantees.
Open Recommendations
| Recommendation Number | Significant Recommendation | Recommended Questioned Costs | Recommended Funds for Better Use | Additional Details | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | No | $0 | $0 | ||
| Disallow the $592,737 in questioned match costs to recover the $254,014 in Federal costs from LearningWorks for the program years 2017 and 2018 due to inadequate documentation to support its in-kind match contributions: donated classroom and office space, and teaching and administrative staff hours; | |||||
| 2 | No | $0 | $0 | ||
| Conduct an assessment of LearningWorks’ match contribution for its third-year funding to determine whether it met its match requirement, disallow any unsupported match contributions and recover any Federal funds that were overpaid as a result of LearningWorks’ failure to meet its match requirements. | |||||
| 3 | No | $0 | $0 | ||
| Oversee the Maine Commission when coordinating with LearningWorks to revise its policies to define supporting documentation for the usage and valuation of donated spaces for in-kind contributions; | |||||
| 4 | No | $0 | $0 | ||
| Instruct the Maine Commission to evaluate compliance of LearningWorks procedures on internal controls for time recordkeeping for donated personnel time at its service sites to provide reasonable assurance that charges are accurate, allowable, and allocable; and necessary. | |||||
| 5 | No | $0 | $0 | ||
| Provide training to the Maine Commission staff and offer training to LearningWorks and other subgrantees concerning acceptable valuation and documentation of in-kind match costs. | |||||
| 6 | No | $0 | $0 | ||
| Require the Maine Commission to develop and implement oversight or quality control of all fiscal monitoring performed by its staff. | |||||
| 7 | No | $0 | $0 | ||
| Coordinate with the Maine Commission to develop guidance explaining and illustrating what constitutes acceptable documentation to support in-kind contributions; | |||||
