BIRMINGHAM PUBLIC SCHOOLSLocal Government

Assistance Listing, Federal Agency, and Program Name 84.027, 84.173, U.S. Department of Education, Special Education Cluster Federal Award Identification Number and Year 240450, 250450, 240460, and 250460 Pass through Entity Oakland County ISD Finding Type Material weakness and material noncompliance with laws and regulations Repeat Finding No Criteria The School District is required to have processes that comply with applicable procurement rules in the Uniform Guidance, including initial identification of those requirements and subsequent compliance per 2 CFR 200.317 through 200.327. Additionally, under Uniform Guidance (2 CFR §180.220), the School District is required to verify that the vendor they chose was not suspended or debarred Condition The School District's internal controls did not effectively identify the required formal solicitation. The School District did not utilize the appropriate competitive procurement methods and did not retain suspended or debarred verification documentation. Questioned Costs None If questioned costs are not determinable, description of why known questioned costs were undetermined or otherwise could not be reported N/A Identification of How Questioned Costs Were Computed N/A Context The School District has one vendor that represents all non payroll related expenditures charged to the grant. The School District was required to competitively bid out this contracted service during fiscal year 2025 as it exceeded the federal bid threshold. The School District did not bid the service and no documentation was maintained to support that the School District verified the vendor was not suspended or debarred. As of the audit testing date, the vendor was not suspended or debarred. Cause and Effect The School District accepted continued services with the current vendor, which was over the federal bid threshold, without conducting a formal bid process. The absence of a formal internal review of contracts over the bid threshold and the lack of review of suspended or debarred verification documentation, resulting in the School District being out of compliance for the two compliance requirements referenced. Recommendation The School District should institute controls to ensure that it is in compliance with both the procurement standards for competitive bids and the requirements related to suspension and debarment, including maintaining adequate related documentation. Views of Responsible Officials and Corrective Action Plan The School District will ensure that the proper procurement methods are adhered to, prior to executing future contracts. This includes also reviewing to ensure that vendors are not suspended or debarred, prior to awarding the contract. To accomplish this, the School District will use their grant budget process as a control for identifying the population of applicable expenditures that will be subject to procurement compliance requirements for federal programs.

Assistance Listing, Federal Agency, and Program Name - 10.553 and 10.555, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Child Nutrition Cluster Federal Award Identification Number and Year - 231970, 241970, 231960, 241960, 220910, 230910, and 240910 Pass-through Entity - Michigan Department of Education Finding Type - Material weakness Repeat Finding - No Criteria - The School District must submit monthly claims for reimbursement for meals served to eligible students within 60 days following the last day of the month covered by the claim (7 CFR sections 210.8, 220.11, 215.10, and 225.15 (c)). Upon preparation of meal reimbursement claims, the School District is required to have controls in place to ensure the accuracy of the request for reimbursement. Condition - For certain periods during the year the School District asserts there was a review process in place over the reimbursement requests; however, the review was not documented, and therefore we were not able to verify if the control was in place and operating effectively. For other periods during the year, the School District did not have a control in place where a review of the meal counts entered into the Michigan Nutrition Data (MiND) system takes place, which could result in incorrect reporting of the number of free and reduced priced meals, which could result in the School District being reimbursed an incorrect amount by the Michigan Department of Education. Cause and Effect - The absence of a secondary review comparing meal data from the School District's meal tracking point of sale system to the inputs into to MiND system means that if an error was made by the person submitting the claim, it would not be caught and the School District would be reimbursed an incorrect amount by the Michigan Department of Education. Recommendation - The School District should implement a control where the monthly reimbursement request is reviewed and approval is documented to ensure the submission is mechanically accurate and that it agrees with the School District’s internal meal claims data report. Views of Responsible Officials and Corrective Action Plan - The School District's business office performed a detailed review of all meal claim submissions for the 2023-2024 fiscal year. Ultimately, the lack of a review control during the 2023-2024 fiscal year did not result in inaccurate reporting or incorrect amount of reimbursement paid by the Michigan Department of Education. The Business Office has since implemented a formalized internal control procedure beginning in July 2024, whereby a formal documented review of the meal claim submission is performed.