Veterans Place of Washington Boulevard, Inc.Non-Profit

Veterans Place of Washington Boulevard, Inc. submits the following corrective action plan for the year ended December 31, 2024. Name and address of independent public accounting firm: Herbein + Company, Foster Plaza 10, 680 Andersen Drive, Suite 205, Pittsburgh, PA 15220 Audit period: Year ended December 31, 2024 The finding from the December 31, 2024 schedule of findings and questioned costs are discussed below. The finding is numbered consistently with the number assigned in the schedule. Section III - Federal Award Findings and Questioned Costs 2024-001 MISSING DOCUMENTATION AND DUPLICATE INVOICE SUBMISSION - MATERIAL WEAKNESS Federal Program Economic Development Initiative, Community Project Funding and Miscellaneous Grants - ALN 14.251 Criteria In order to be allowable under federal awards, costs must meet general criteria, which includes adequate documentation. Under OMB guidance, Public Law (Pub. L) No. 116-117, Payments Integrity Information Act of 2019, and Executive Order 13520 on reducing improper payments, federal agencies are required to take actions to prevent improper payments, review federal awards for such payments, and as applicable, recover improper payments, including any duplicate payment. Condition While performing tests over activities allowed or unallowed and allowable costs/cost principles, we noted documentation for one invoice charged to the grant could not be located. As a result, we were unable to determine that the cost was allowable per the terms of the grant award. We also noted that a second invoice charged to the grant was submitted for reimbursement twice. Cause This is a new grant in the current year to cover the portion of the cost for a new building. While management submitted invoices to the Department of Housing and Urban Development for review and approval prior to reimbursement, they did not maintain a record of the costs submitted for each reimbursement request by either listing the invoices and amounts charged or other means. Effect The Organization was unable to provide documentation for one of the invoices charged to the program, and a second invoice was charged to the program twice. Questioned Costs $54,461 Context The grant was for a portion of construction costs with the difference coming from donations or other assets of Veterans Place of Washington Boulevard, Inc. In order to receive reimbursement for expenses, the Organization was required to submit invoices to the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for approval prior to uploading the invoices for reimbursement. The expenses in question were approved by HUD prior to requesting or receiving reimbursement. Furthermore, there were approximately $96,000 of construction costs that were incurred but not reimbursed by HUD that appear to meet the terms and conditions of the grant. Repeat Finding No Recommendation We recommend that detailed documentation of the costs submitted for reimbursement are maintained in a separate file so that costs charged to the program are easily identified. Management Response In the situation concerning our inability to identify invoices associated with a requested reimbursement, costs for a particular area were submitted for review and approval by HUD and the costs were not clearly attributed to one singular invoice but reflected as portions of the total invoice submitted by one vendor. In the future, when requesting reimbursement, costs will be more clearly indicated to a specific invoice and identified so they can be more easily tracked. In the case of a duplicate invoice, we typically checked against our records of paid invoices and in this case, our belief was that it was paid but not marked as submitted for reimbursement. In the future, invoices will be verified against both our record of paid invoices as well as a separate record of reimbursed invoices.