Agreed-Upon Procedures of Corporation for National and Community Service Grants Awarded to the North Carolina Commission on Volunteerism and Community Service

From August 2014 to June 2017, the North Carolina Commission on Volunteerism and Community Service (Commission) and two of its larger subgrantees claimed $16,132,771 in federal and match expenditures under the AmeriCorps State and National program. CNCS-OIG’s Agreed-Upon Procedures review (AUP) of the claimed costs discovered that $2,040,402 ($777,219 in Federal costs and $1,086,090 in match costs, as well as an additional $176,876 in questionable education awards and $217 in accrued interest) were improper or unsupported.We found substantial unexplained disparities between the costs reported to the Federal government and those shown on the Commission’s internal general ledgers; inadequate timekeeping practices at the Commission; failure by subgrantees to perform required end-of-term evaluations for AmeriCorps members; and insufficient criminal history checks by subgrantees that the Commission failed to discover and correct. Overall, the Commission did not provide sufficient program and financial oversight of its subgrantees, as required by grant terms and the Commission’s own monitoring policy. Finally, we found that the Commission charged the AmeriCorps grant for the salary of an employee performing unrelated duties on another grant, after that grant was exhausted.The Commission acknowledged the importance of appropriate administrative policies and procedures and strong oversight of subrecipients. It’s comprehensive response to the draft report documented that changes responsive to our recommendations are already underway. The Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) agreed with the majority of the recommendations. CNCS will make its final determination for all findings after the final report is issued.