Performance Audit Report on Selected Awards to The Writer's Center

We conducted a limited scope audit of The Writer’s Center (Center) for the period of February 1, 2016 through January 31, 2019. Limited scope audits involve a limited review of financial and non-financial information of the National Endowment for the Arts (Arts Endowment) award recipients to ensure validity and accuracy of reported information, and compliance with Federal requirements. Based on our limited scope audit, we concluded that the Center generally complied with financial management system and recordkeeping requirements established by Office of Management and Budget and the Arts Endowment. We identified areas requiring improvement. A summary of our findings is as follows. The Center: did not meet Federal requirements for allocating employee compensation costs to Arts Endowment awards; included unallowable costs on its Federal Financial Report (FFR) for Award No. DCA 2016-02; included unallowable travel costs on its FFRs for Award Nos. DCA 2016-02 and DCA 2017-15; included excess travel costs on its FFRs for Award Nos. DCA 2015-03 and DCA 2017-15; did not verify debarment and suspension eligibility of potential recipients of Federal funds; did not maintain a Section 504 Self-Evaluation on file during the audit period; and did not fully comply with financial management award requirements.