Federal Reports

Independent auditors have declined to issue an opinion on AmeriCorps’ financial statements for the eighth year. They issued a disclaimer of opinion reporting 11 material weaknesses and two significant deficiencies and added three new recommendations. The auditors, however, verified that AmeriCorps took appropriate actions to close 20 of the 95 prior year recommendations. As a result of this audit, there are now 78 open recommendations.

All eleven of the material weaknesses are recurring, three of them since FY 2017, five since FY 2018, one since FY 2021, and two since FY 2022. AmeriCorps included in its Annual Management Report a Statement of No Assurance, acknowledging that its system of internal controls does not currently provide the necessary level of assurance towards the effectiveness of internal control over operations, reporting, and compliance. This is the fifth consecutive year that AmeriCorps has issued a No Assurance statement.

AmeriCorps acknowledged the disclaimer of opinion and expressed concurrence to six material weaknesses and two significant deficiencies. However, AmeriCorps did not concur with five material weaknesses. AmeriCorps did not specify with which material weaknesses it was in agreement or disagreement in its response to the report. AmeriCorps’ response is included in its entirety in Exhibit IV of the audit report. The 78 recommendations will remain open until corrective actions have been fully implemented.

The National Service Trust holds the funds set aside to pay the education awards of national service members who successfully complete their service terms. Responsibility for the education awards that have been earned or will be earned in the near future is the largest liability on AmeriCorps’ financial statements at $287 million.

AmeriCorps has been unable to produce auditable financial statements for the last eight years. This year, independent auditors issued another disclaimer of opinion, reporting five material weaknesses and one significant deficiency. The auditors, however, verified that AmeriCorps took appropriate actions to close 16 of the 46 prior year recommendations. The remaining 30 recommendations continue to be valid and open, seven of them in modified form. The auditors also made three new recommendations, for a total of 33.

The Chief Financial Officers Act of 1990 requires the Inspector General to audit the agency’s financial statements each year, which is intended to help improve an agency’s financial management and controls over financial reporting. The auditors issued a disclaimer of opinion, as they were not able to obtain sufficient appropriate audit evidence to provide a basis for an audit opinion because of errors identified in the underlying data used to calculate the subsidy re-estimates for the direct loan and loan guaranty programs. In the Report on Internal Control over Financial Reporting, the auditors identified one material weakness and two significant deficiencies in internal control over financial reporting. In the Report on Compliance and Other Matters, the auditors’ testing did not identify instances of noncompliance or other matter to be reported. Seventeen recommendations were made to FSA to address the internal control findings. (See page 184 for the audit)