ICAST

The SEFA prepared did not include assistance listing numbers for each program; grants provided to ICAST as a vendor and not a subrecipient were incorrectly included on the SEFA, and the SEFA was missing two programs where the grantor treated ICAST as a subrecipient. Accrual estimates were used for the expenditures that were not reconciled until eight months after year-end.

The 2023 SEFA was based on the 2022 audited SEFA schedule, updating it for the new 2023 federal programs. Since most of ICAST contracts are with state government agencies, in some instances it is not clear or apparent to ICAST staff, whether the source of funds are Federal for those state contracts. The initial SEFA submission was identified as preliminary and was subsequently updated as ICAST learned more about the source of the state funds. The accrual figures were subject to ongoing deliberations with the state and federal agencies that led to delays in addressing the final reconciliation. ICAST is experiencing delays as long as six months for approval and payment of its invoices by both the state and the federal agencies monitoring its program funds. ICAST has addressed this finding in the following manner: 1. Management and staff will be taking refresher training on the Uniform Guidance requirements. New staff will be trained on it. 2. ICAST has begun to clarify upfront the source of funds for all contracts with its funders. Also ICAST is consolidating all contracts into a central location, with clear indication of the source of funds, to ensure complete and accurate records are available to management and staff when assessing programs for inclusion/exclusion on the SEFA. 3. ICAST continues to hire and train additional financial/accounting staff and management to ensure financial records are reviewed every month and items are followed up and resolved in a timely manner. 4. ICAST is reorganizing its accounting recordkeeping process, to ensure program information is more transparent and readily available.