Sunman-Dearborn Community School CorporationLocal Government

FINDING 2025-001 Subject: Special Education Cluster (IDEA) - Procurement and Suspension and Debarment Federal Agency: Department of Education Federal Programs: Special Education Grants to States, COVID-19 - Special Education Grants to States Assistance Listings Numbers: 84.027, 84.027X Federal Award Numbers and Years (or Other Identifying Numbers): 22611-164-ARP, 23611-164-PN01 Pass-Through Entity: Indiana Department of Education Compliance Requirement: Procurement and Suspension and Debarment Audit Findings: Material Weakness, Other Matters INDIANA STATE BOARD OF ACCOUNTS 13 SUNMAN-DEARBORN COMMUNITY SCHOOL CORPORATION SCHEDULE OF FINDINGS AND QUESTIONED COSTS (Continued) Condition and Context Prior to entering into subawards and covered transactions with federal award funds, recipients are required to verify that such contractors and subrecipients are not suspended, debarred, or otherwise excluded. "Covered transactions" include, but are not limited to, contracts for goods and services awarded under a nonprocurement transaction (i.e., grant agreement) that are expected to equal or exceed $25,000. The verification is to be done by checking the SAM exclusions, collecting a certification from that person, or adding a clause or condition to the covered transaction with that person. Upon inquiry of the School Corporation, it was determined that the School Corporation did not have policies and procedures in place to ensure vendors were not suspended or debarred. A population of three covered transactions for goods or services that equaled or exceeded $25,000 paid from special education federal grant funds during the audit period was identified. For two of the three transactions, the School Corporation did not verify the vendors' suspension and debarment status prior to payment. The lack of effective internal controls and noncompliance were systemic issues throughout the audit period. 2 CFR 200.303 states in part: "The non-Federal entity must: (a) Establish and maintain effective internal control over the Federal award that provides reasonable assurance that the non-Federal entity is managing the Federal award in compliance with Federal statutes, regulations, and the terms and conditions of the Federal award. These internal controls should be in compliance with guidance in 'Standards for Internal Control in the Federal Government' issued by the Comptroller General of the United States or the 'Internal Control Integrated Framework', issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO). . . ." 2 CFR 180.300 states: "When you enter into a covered transaction with another person at the next lower tier, you must verify that the person with whom you intend to do business is not excluded or disqualified. You do this by: (a) Checking SAM Exclusions; or (b) Collecting a certification from that person; or (c) Adding a clause or condition to the covered transaction with that person." Cause A proper system of internal controls was not designed by management of the School Corporation, which would include segregation of key functions. Embedded within a properly designed and implemented internal control system should be internal controls consisting of policies and procedures. Policies reflect the School Corporation's management statements of what should be done to effect internal controls, and procedures should consist of actions that would implement these policies. Officials were not aware of the need to follow federal guidelines for suspension and debarment for expenditures associated with the Special Education Cluster awards. INDIANA STATE BOARD OF ACCOUNTS 14 SUNMAN-DEARBORN COMMUNITY SCHOOL CORPORATION SCHEDULE OF FINDINGS AND QUESTIONED COSTS (Continued) Effect Without the proper implementation of an effectively designed system of internal controls, the internal control system cannot be capable of effectively preventing, or detecting and correcting, material noncompliance. As a result, vendors to whom payments equal to or in excess of $25,000 were not verified to be not suspended, debarred, or otherwise excluded. Noncompliance with the grant agreement and the compliance requirement could result in the loss of future federal funds to the School Corporation. Questioned Costs There were no questioned costs identified. Recommendation We recommended that management of the School Corporation establish a proper system of internal controls and develop policies and procedures to ensure that contractors and subrecipients, as appropriate, are not suspended, debarred, or otherwise excluded prior to entering into any contracts or subawards. Views of Responsible Officials For the views of responsible officials, refer to the Corrective Action Plan that is part of this report.

Finding 2023-001 Information on the federal program: Subject: Education Stabilization Fund – Special Tests and Provisions - Wage Rate Requirements Federal Agency: Department of Education Federal Program: COVID-19 - Education Stabilization Fund Assistance Listing Number: 84.425D, 84.425U Pass-Through Entity: Indiana Department of Education Compliance Requirement: Special Tests and Provisions - Wage Rate Requirements Audit Findings: Material Weakness, Noncompliance Criteria: 2 CFR section 200.303 states in part: "The non-Federal entity must: (a) Establish and maintain effective internal control over Federal award that provides reasonable assurance that the non-Federal entity is managing the Federal awards in compliance with Federal statutes, regulations, and the terms and conditions of the Federal award. These internal controls should be in compliance with guidance in 'Standards for Internal Control in the Federal Government' issued by the Comptroller General of the United States or the 'Internal Control Integrated Framework', issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO). . . ." 29 CFR 5.5 states in part: a.The Agency head shall cause or require the contracting officer to insert in full in any contract in excess of $2,000 which is entered into for the actual construction, alteration and/or repair, including painting and decorating, of a public building or public work, or building or work financed in whole or in part from Federal funds or in accordance with guarantees of a Federal agency or financed from funds obtained by pledge of any contract of a Federal agency to make a loan, grant or annual contribution (except where a different meaning is expressly indicated), and which is subject to the labor standards provisions of any of the acts listed in §5.1, the following clauses… (1) Minimum wages. (i) All laborers and mechanics employed or working upon the site of the work (or under the United States Housing Act of 1937 or under the Housing Act of 1949 in the construction or development of the project), will be paid unconditionally and not less often than once a week, and without subsequent deduction or rebate on any account (except such payroll deductions as are permitted by regulations issued by the Secretary of Labor under the Copeland Act (29 CFR part 3)), the full amount of wages and bona fide fringe benefits (or cash equivalents thereof) due at time of payment computed at rates not less than those contained in the wage determination of the Secretary of Labor which is attached hereto and made a part hereof, regardless of any contractual relationship which may be alleged to exist between the contractor and such laborers and mechanics… (3)(ii)(A) The contractor shall submit weekly for each week in which any contract work is performed a copy of all payrolls to the (write in name of appropriate federal agency) if the agency is a party to the contract, but if the agency is not such a party, the contractor will submit the payrolls to the applicant, sponsor, or owner, as the case may be, for transmission to the (write in name of agency). 2 CFR 200 Appendix II states in part: In addition to other provisions required by the Federal agency or non-Federal entity; all contracts made by the non-Federal entity under the Federal award must contain provisions covering the following, as applicable. . . . (D) Davis-Bacon Act, as amended (40 U.S.C. 3141-3148). When required by Federal program legislation, all prime construction contracts in excess of $2,000 awarded by non-Federal entities must include a provision for compliance with the Davis-Bacon Act (40 U.S.C. 3141-3144, and 3146-3148) as supplemented by Department of Labor regulations (29 CFR Part 5, “Labor Standards Provisions Applicable to Contracts Covering Federally Financed and Assisted Construction”). In accordance with the statute, contractors must be required to pay wages to laborers and mechanics at a rate not less than the prevailing wages specified in a wage determination made by the Secretary of Labor. In addition, contractors must be required to pay wages not less than once a week.. . .” Condition: An effective internal control system was not in place at the School Corporation in order to ensure compliance with requirements related to the grant agreement and the Special Tests and Provisions – Wage Rate Requirements compliance requirements. The School Corporation did not include Davis Bacon wage rate requirements in its contract with vendor which includes labor. The School Corporation did not obtain the weekly payroll reports certifications from a construction company and its subcontractors for a building project. Cause: The School Corporation's management had not developed a system of internal controls to ensure compliance with the compliance requirements listed above. Effect: The failure to design and implement an effective internal control system enabled material noncompliance to go undetected. Noncompliance with the grant agreement and the Special Tests and Provisions – Wage Rate Requirements compliance requirement could result in the loss of future federal funds to the School Corporation. Questioned Costs: There were no questioned costs identified. Context: The School Corporation did not have an internal control designed to collect the weekly payroll reports certifications from a construction company and its subcontractors, as applicable, for building projects which included playground equipment. As of June 30, 2023, $75,190 was disbursed related to this capital project. The construction payments represented approximately 2.7% of the Education Stabilization Fund expenditures for the audit period. Therefore, no review was performed to ensure that pay rates complied with the federal wage rate requirements. The construction contracts did not include clauses for federal wage rate requirements. Identification as a repeat finding: No. Recommendation: We recommend the School Corporation include Davis-Bacon wage requirements in vendor contracts which are federally funded and implement a formal process to ensure the required weekly payroll report certifications are collected and reviewed by management to ensure compliance with the federal wage rate requirements. Views of Responsible Officials and Planned Corrective Actions: Management agrees with the finding and has prepared a corrective action plan.

FINDING 2019-002 Subject: Special Education Cluster (IDEA) ? Procurement Federal Agency: Department of Education Federal Programs: Special Education Grants to States, Special Education Preschool Grants CFDA Numbers: 84.027, 84.173 Federal Award Numbers and Years (or Other Identifying Numbers): 14217-052-PN01, 45717-050-PN01, 18619-050-PN01 Pass Through Entity: Indiana Department of Education Compliance Requirement: Procurement Audit Findings: Material Weakness, Other Matters Condition and Context The School Corporation is a member of the Ripley-Ohio-Dearborn Special Education Cooperative (Cooperative). During fiscal year 2017-2018, the Cooperative operated the special education programs and managed the special education funds on behalf of all its members. Because the grant agreements were between the Indiana Department of Education (IDOE) and the School Corporation, the School Corporation was ultimately responsible for compliance with the Procurement and Suspension and Debarment compliance requirement. The Cooperative had a written procurement policy; however, it did not reflect the required State and Federal laws and regulations. Additionally, documentation was not provided to support the history of their procurements, including the rationale for method of procurement, selection of contract type, basis for contractor selection, and the basis for the contract price. For each of the six vendors tested during fiscal year 2017-2018, the Cooperative did not obtain price or rate quotes from an adequate number of qualified sources for the purchase of goods or services that fell within the small purchase procedures for procurements, nor was full and open competition provided. The lack of controls and noncompliance were systemic issues for fiscal year 2017-2018. Criteria 2 CFR 200.303 states in part: "The non-Federal entity must: (a) Establish and maintain effective internal control over the Federal award that provides reasonable assurance that the non-Federal entity is managing the Federal award in compliance with Federal statutes, regulations, and the terms and conditions of the Federal award. These internal controls should be in compliance with guidance in 'Standards for Internal Control in the Federal Government' issued by the Comptroller General of the United States or the 'Internal Control Integrated Framework', issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO). . . ." 2 CFR 200.318 states in part: "(a) The non-Federal entity must use its own documented procurement procedures which reflect applicable State, local, and tribal laws and regulations, provided that the procurements conform to applicable Federal law and the standards identified in this part. . . . (i) The non-Federal entity must maintain records sufficient to detail the history of procurement. These records will include, but are not necessarily limited to the following: rationale for the method of procurement, selection of contract type, contractor selection or rejection, and the basis for the contract price. . . . " 2 CFR 200.320 states in part: ?The non-Federal Entity must use one of the following methods of procurement. . . . (b) Procurement by small purchase procedures. Small purchase procedures are those relatively simple and informal procurement methods for securing services, supplies, or other property that do not cost more than the Simplified Acquisition Threshold. If small purchase procedures are used, price or rate quotations must be obtained from an adequate number of qualified sources. . . . (f) Procurement by noncompetitive proposals. Procurement by noncompetitive proposals is procurement through solicitation of a proposal from only one source and may be used only when one or more of the following circumstances apply: (1) The item is available only from a single source; (2) The public exigency or emergency for the requirement will not permit a delay resulting from competitive solicitation; (3) The Federal awarding agency or pass-through entity expressly authorizes non-competitive proposals in response to a written request from the non-Federal Entity; or (4) After solicitation of a number of sources, competition is determined inadequate.? Cause Management had not developed or implemented a system of internal controls that would have ensured compliance with the grant agreement and the compliance requirement listed above. Effect This lack of internal controls allowed material noncompliance to go undetected. Questioned Costs There were no questioned costs identified. Recommendation We recommended that the School Corporation's management establish internal controls related to the grant agreement and the compliance requirement listed above. Views of Responsible Officials For the views of responsible officials, refer to the Corrective Action Plan that is part of this report.

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