Oklahoma’s Administration of the Governor’s Emergency Education Relief Fund Grant

Submitting OIG:

Report Description:

The objectives of the audit were to determine whether the State of Oklahoma (Oklahoma) designed and implemented awarding processes that ensured that the Governor's Emergency Education Relief Fund (GEER grant) was used to support local educational agencies (LEA) and institutions of higher education (IHE) that were most significantly impacted by the coronavirus or LEAs, IHEs, or other education-related entities within the State that were deemed essential for carrying out emergency educational services; and monitoring processes to ensure that subgrantees used GEER grant funds in accordance with the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) and other applicable Federal requirements. Oklahoma did not award all of its GEER grant funds in accordance with the CARES Act, Federal regulations, Department guidance, and GEER grant conditions.

Date Issued:

Monday, July 18, 2022

Agency Reviewed / Investigated:

Department of Education

Submitting OIG-Specific Report Number:

A20GA0011

Component, if applicable:

Office of Elementary and Secondary Education

Location(s):

Agency-Wide

Type of Report:

Audit

Special Projects:

Pandemic

Questioned Costs:

$652,720

Funds for Better Use:

Number of Recommendations:

View Document:

Attachment	Size
Oklahoma’s-Administration-Governor’s-Emergency-Education-Relief-Fund-Grant.pdf	2.51 MB

Additional Details Link:

https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/oig/auditreports/fy2022/a20ga0011.pdf

Recommendation Number	Recommendation Status	Significant Recommendation
1.1	Open	Yes
Provide documentation, or a full and detailed written explanation, of the process Oklahoma used to determine the initiatives it supported with GEER grant funds and the entities it selected to administer the initiatives.
1.2	Open	Yes
Develop and implement a process to ensure that it documents the criteria and decisions made for awarding future GEER grant funds in accordance with applicable requirements.
1.3	Open	Yes
Develop and implement internal controls to ensure that it administers current and future GEER grants in accordance with applicable Federal laws and grant requirements, including ensuring that grant subrecipients are provided the proper award documentation; and that any entity that is awarded Federal funds retains records relating to those awards in accordance with Federal requirements.
1.4	Open	Yes
Perform a 100 percent review, or review a statistical sample, of the Stay in School Fund microgrant recipients to confirm that all students were eligible to receive GEER grant funds.
1.5	Open	Yes
Develop and implement written policies and procedures to describe the specific circumstances under which deviations from procurement rules are warranted, including procedures about required documentation of such decisions for procurements that do not use competitive bidding but use Federal education funds.
1.6	Open	Yes
Take appropriate action if the documentation and other information provided by Oklahoma in response to the above recommendations does not support that the State followed applicable requirements.
2.1	Open	Yes
Return $652,720 to the Department for the unallowable Bridge the Gap expenditures we identified or provide documentation to support that the expenditures were allowable or the items were purchased with personal funds.
2.2	Open	Yes
Perform a 100-percent review, or review a statistical sample, of the $5,473,894 in Bridge the Gap expenditures that we did not review to determine whether the expenditures were allowable, and if applicable, return the funds for any unallowable expenditures to the Department.
2.3	Open	Yes
Develop and implement additional internal controls for the Skills to Rebuild, Learn Anywhere Oklahoma, Bridge the Gap, and Stay in School Fund initiatives that include written monitoring procedures for those processes that are already in place, and for additional procedures that include a review of expenditures and supporting documentation, and a review of documentation that supports the information in initiatives’ weekly status reports.
2.4	Open	Yes
Develop and implement internal controls to ensure that fiscal agents for Federal grant programs obtain an understanding of the rules and regulations surrounding the grant programs they are tasked with overseeing.

Recommendation Number

Recommendation Status

Significant Recommendation

Additional Details

1.1

Open

Yes

Provide documentation, or a full and detailed written explanation, of the process Oklahoma used to determine the initiatives it supported with GEER grant funds and the entities it selected to administer the initiatives.

1.2

Open

Yes

Develop and implement a process to ensure that it documents the criteria and decisions made for awarding future GEER grant funds in accordance with applicable requirements.