Hope for Prisoners, Inc.

U.S. Department of Labor, WIOA Adult Program, Assistance Listing Number 17.258, Passed Through Workforce Connections, Internal Control over Allowable Activities, Allowable Costs and Period of Performance. Criteria: To promote an effective control environment, internal controls over the approval of the Request for Reimbursement (RFR) form should be designed, implemented, and consistently applied. Condition: RFR forms are prepared and submitted to the grantor in order to receive reimbursement for expenditures. A review of each RFR should be performed to ensure expenditures are for allowable costs, allowable activities and are within the period of performance allowed for under the grant. There was no control in place to ensure to the appropriateness of expenditures for all of the 23 test selections. Cause: The internal control system over the review of the RFR form had not been designed or implemented. Effect: Failure to design and implement controls over the review of the RFR form could result in errors in the expenses allocated to the grant. U.S. Department of Labor, WIOA Adult Program, Assistance Listing Number 17.258, Passed Through Workforce Connections, Internal Control over Allowable Activities, Allowable Costs and Period of Performance. (continued) Repeat Finding: This is a repeat finding from the year ended June 30, 2022 (2022-003). Recommendation: We recommend management design and implement a system of internal controls whereby all RFR forms are reviewed prior to submission. Views of Responsible Officials: Hope for Prisoners’ CEO reviews and approves all RFR forms in writing prior to submission. Oversight by specific board members will be provided through a review of the submitted RFR to compare it to the monthly financial reports already being provided.

U.S. Department of Labor, WIOA Adult Program, Assistance Listing Number 17.258, Passed Through Workforce Connections, Internal Control over Reporting Criteria: The auditee is required to maintain a system of internal control to provide reasonable assurance that federal reporting requirements are in compliance with the terms and conditions of the federal awards. Condition: A quality control checklist is maintained for each client. The checklist ensures that the Organization’s staff reviews the required documents, and the client information is entered into the EmployNV system, which provides the metrics for the required performance reporting. Out of 25 test selections, management was unable to provide quality controls checklists for 5 test selections and the checklist was only partially completed for 9 test selections. Cause: The internal control system over performance reporting was not operating effectively. The quality control checklist was either incomplete or not maintained. Effect: Not completing or maintaining the quality control checklist increases the risk that complete client information was not entered into the EmployNV system. This could result in the required reporting metrics not being submitted, which would be a violation of the grant agreement. Recommendation: We recommend management design and implement a system of internal controls whereby the quality control checklist is reviewed and maintained for each client in the program. U.S. Department of Labor, WIOA Adult Program, Assistance Listing Number 17.258, Passed Through Workforce Connections, Internal Control over Reporting. Views of Responsible Officials: Management has since created a standard operating procedure that requires program personnel to properly complete and document quality control reviews over client files. Hope for Prisoners performs client file quality control reviews through a peer-to-peer review process performed by career coaches as well as through a review by the Organization’s Program Support Specialist. The Program Support Specialist’s main job function is the performance of quality control reviews of all client files. Both of these reviews ensure that quality control checklists are being properly completed and maintained in all client files.

U.S. Department of Labor, WIOA Adult Program, Assistance Listing Number 17.258, Passed Through Workforce Connections, Internal Control over Allowable Activities. Criteria: To promote an effective control environment, internal controls over the approval of the Request for Reimbursement (RFR) form should be designed, implemented, and consistently applied. Condition: The RFR form, which includes the allocation of expenses to the grant in order to support the appropriateness of the related activity and to receive reimbursement is not reviewed prior to submission to the grantor. Cause: The internal control system over the review of the RFR form had not been designed or implemented. Effect: Failure to design and implement controls over the review of the RFR form could result in errors in the expenses allocated to the grant. Recommendation: We recommend management design and implement a system of internal controls whereby all RFR forms are reviewed prior to submission. Views of Responsible Officials: Hope for Prisoners’ CEO presently reviews and approves all RFR forms in writing prior to submission. Oversight by specific board members will be provided through a review of the submitted RFR to compare it to the monthly financial reports already being provided.

U.S. Department of Labor, WIOA Adult Program, Assistance Listing Number 17.258, Passed Through Workforce Connections, Internal Control over Reporting Criteria: The auditee is required to maintain a system of internal control to provide reasonable assurance that federal reporting requirements are in compliance with the terms and conditions of the federal awards. Condition: A quality control checklist is maintained for each client. The checklist ensures that the Organization?s staff reviews the required documents, and the client information is entered into the EmployNV system, which provides the metrics for the required performance reporting. Out of 16 test selections, there was no quality control checklist for 13 test selections. Cause: The internal control system over the performance reporting was not operating effectively. The quality control checklist was either not completed or not maintained. Effect: Not completing or maintaining the quality control checklist increases the risk that a client?s information was not entered into the EmployNV system. This would result in the required reporting metrics not being submitted, which would be a violation of the grant agreement. Recommendation: We recommend management design and implement a system of internal controls whereby the quality control checklist is reviewed and maintained for each client in the program. U.S. Department of Labor, WIOA Adult Program, Assistance Listing Number 17.258, Passed Through Workforce Connections, Internal Control over Reporting. Views of Responsible Officials: Management has since created a standard operating procedure that requires program personnel to properly complete and document quality control reviews over client files. Hope for Prisoners performs client file quality control reviews through a peer-to-peer review process performed by career coaches as well as through a review by the Organization?s Program Support Specialist. The Program Support Specialist?s main job function is the performance of quality control reviews of all client files. Both of these reviews ensure that quality control checklists are being properly completed and maintained in all client files.

U.S. Department of Labor, WIOA Adult Program, Assistance Listing Number 17.258, Passed Through Workforce Connections, Internal Control over Allowable Activities. Criteria: To promote an effective control environment, internal controls over the approval of the Request for Reimbursement (RFR) form should be designed, implemented, and consistently applied. Condition: The RFR form, which includes the allocation of expenses to the grant in order to support the appropriateness of the related activity and to receive reimbursement is not reviewed prior to submission to the grantor. Cause: The internal control system over the review of the RFR form had not been designed or implemented. Effect: Failure to design and implement controls over the review of the RFR form could result in errors in the expenses allocated to the grant. Recommendation: We recommend management design and implement a system of internal controls whereby all RFR forms are reviewed prior to submission. Views of Responsible Officials: Hope for Prisoners? CEO presently reviews and approves all RFR forms in writing prior to submission. Oversight by specific board members will be provided through a review of the submitted RFR to compare it to the monthly financial reports already being provided.

U.S. Department of Labor, WIOA Adult Program, Assistance Listing Number 17.258, Passed Through Workforce Connections, Internal Control over Reporting Criteria: The auditee is required to maintain a system of internal control to provide reasonable assurance that federal reporting requirements are in compliance with the terms and conditions of the federal awards. Condition: A quality control checklist is maintained for each client. The checklist ensures that the Organization’s staff reviews the required documents, and the client information is entered into the EmployNV system, which provides the metrics for the required performance reporting. Out of 16 test selections, there was no quality control checklist for 13 test selections. Cause: The internal control system over the performance reporting was not operating effectively. The quality control checklist was either not completed or not maintained. Effect: Not completing or maintaining the quality control checklist increases the risk that a client’s information was not entered into the EmployNV system. This would result in the required reporting metrics not being submitted, which would be a violation of the grant agreement. Recommendation: We recommend management design and implement a system of internal controls whereby the quality control checklist is reviewed and maintained for each client in the program. U.S. Department of Labor, WIOA Adult Program, Assitance Living Number 17.258, Passed Through Workforce Connections, Internal Control over Reporting. Views of Responsible Officials: Managment has since created a standard operating procedure that requires program personnel to property complete and document quality control reviews over client files. Hope for Prisoners performs client file quality control reviews through a peer-to-peer review process performed by career coaches as well as through a review by the Organization's Program Support Specialist. The Program Support Specialist's main job function is the performance of quality control reviews of all client files. Both of these reviews ensure that quality checklists are being properly completed and maintained in all client files.

U.S. Department of Labor, WIOA Adult Program, Assistance Listing Number 17.258, Passed Through Workforce Connections, Internal Control over Allowable Activities Criteria: To promote an effective control environment, internal controls over the approval of the Request for Reimbursement (RFR) form should be designed, implemented, and consistently applied. Condition: The RFR form, which includes the allocation of expenses to the grant in order to support the appropriateness of the related activity and to receive reimbursement is not reviewed prior to submission to the grantor. Cause: The internal control system over the review of the RFR form had not been designed or implemented. Effect: Failure to design and implement controls over the review of the RFR form could result in errors in the expenses allocated to the grant. Recommendation: We recommend management design and implement a system of internal controls whereby all RFR forms are reviewed prior to submission. Views of Responsible Officials: Hope for Prisoners' CEO presently reviews and approves all RFR forms in writing prior to submission. Oversight by specific board members will be provided through a review of the submitted RFR to compare it to the monthly financial reports already being provided.