Performance Audit of Incurred Costs - Arctic Research Consortium of the United States

Submitting OIG:

National Science Foundation OIG

Date Issued:

Tuesday, August 9, 2022

Agency Reviewed / Investigated:

National Science Foundation

Submitting OIG-Specific Report Number:

22-1-011

External entity, if applicable:

Arctic Research Consortium of the United States

Location(s):

Fairbanks, AK

United States

Type of Report:

Audit

Questioned Costs:

$14,847

Funds for Better Use:

Number of Recommendations:

View Document:

Attachment	Size
22-1-011-ARCUS.pdf	1.92 MB

Recommendation Number	Recommendation Status	Significant Recommendation
1.1	Open	Yes
Direct ARCUS to provide documentation supporting that it has repaid or otherwise credited the $8,456 in questioned software and internet service expenses for which it has agreed to reimburse NSF.
1.2	Open	Yes
Direct ARCUS to strengthen its policies and procedures for documenting the methodology it uses to allocate expenses to NSF awards, including introducing additional controls to help ensure that it appropriately creates and maintains sufficient documentation to support that ARCUS is charging expenses to NSF awards consistent with the benefits the NSF awards receive.
1.3	Open	Yes
Direct ARCUS to review all general software and internet service expenses charged directly to NSF awards and identify any other software and internet service expenses that it did not appropriately allocate to NSF awards.
2.1	Open	Yes
Resolve the $5,651 in questioned publication costs for which ARCUS has not agreed to reimburse NSF and direct ARCUS to repay or otherwise remove the sustained questioned costs from its NSF award.
2.2	Open	Yes
Direct ARCUS to provide documentation supporting that it has repaid or otherwise credited the $740 in questioned social event expenses for which it has agreed to reimburse NSF.
2.3	Open	Yes
Direct ARCUS to strengthen its policies and procedures surrounding the publication of NSF-funded research. Updated procedures should ensure ARCUS verifies that the authors appropriately recognize the applicable NSF awards in their publications and document the allowable portion of costs before charging publication expenses to the NSF awards.
2.4	Open	Yes
Direct ARCUS to strengthen its travel expense approval procedures to require that reviewers verify the business purpose of reimbursed meal receipts before ARCUS charges the expenses to NSF awards.
3.1	Open	Yes
Direct ARCUS to strengthen its administrative and management procedures to ensure that supervisors perform timesheet approvals by the date and time required per ARCUS’ salary policies and/or update its policies to reflect the current timesheet approval procedures.
3.2	Open	Yes
Direct ARCUS to strengthen its quality control procedures for assigning risk scores to subrecipients. Updated procedures should ensure ARCUS appropriately weights all risk assessment matrix criteria before assigning a risk score to each subrecipient.
4.1	Open	Yes
Direct ARCUS to update its ACM$ drawdown process to ensure that it can produce accurate, current, and complete records that adequately identify the source and application of NSF funds.

Recommendation Number

Recommendation Status

Significant Recommendation

Additional Details

1.1

Open

Yes

Direct ARCUS to provide documentation supporting that it has repaid or otherwise credited the $8,456 in questioned software and internet service expenses for which it has agreed to reimburse NSF.

1.2

Open

Yes

Direct ARCUS to strengthen its policies and procedures for documenting the methodology it uses to allocate expenses to NSF awards, including introducing additional controls to help ensure that it appropriately creates and maintains sufficient documentation to support that ARCUS is charging expenses to NSF awards consistent with the benefits the NSF awards receive.