Southern States Energy BoardNon-Profit

Compliance Requirement: Reporting Type of Finding:  Significant Deficiency in Internal Control over Compliance  Other Matters Federal Agency: U.S. Department of Energy Federal Program Name: Transportation of Transuranic Wastes to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant Assistance Listing Number: 81.106 Federal Award Identification Number and Year: DE-EM0005215 - 2020 Award Period: 7/01/2020 – 6/30/2025 Budget Period: 7/01/2022 – 6/30/2023 Criteria or specific requirement: As a recipient of federal awards, the Board is required to establish and maintain effective internal control over federal awards that provides reasonable assurance of managing the federal awards in compliance with federal statutes, regulations, and the terms and conditions of the federal awards pursuant to Title 2 U.S. Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 200, Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards (Uniform Guidance), Section 200.303 – Internal Controls. Under the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 (FFATA) (Public Law 109-282), as codified in Title 2 CFR Part 170, Reporting Subaward and Executive Compensation Information, recipients of grants or cooperative agreements, including the Board, who make first-tier subawards of $30,000 or more are required to register in the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act Subaward Reporting System (FSRS). Subaward data, such as the subaward date, subawardee Data Universal Numbering System number, amount of subaward, subaward obligation/action date, date of report submission, and subaward number, are submitted through the FSRS and accessible to the general public through the USASpending.gov website. Condition: Our examination of reporting requirements associated with the program during the year ended June 30, 2023 revealed that the Board failed to submit subaward data to the FSRS for all 11 first-tier subawards. Therefore, all first-tier subawards of $30,000 or more, and the associated subaward data, was not reflected on the USASpending.gov website as required. Questioned costs: None. Cause: Oversight by management. Effect: The auditor noted instances of noncompliance due to the lack of FFATA reporting. Transparency objectives associated with FFATA reporting requirements were not achieved due to this noncompliance. Recommendation: We recommend the Board establish policies and procedures associated with FFATA reporting requirements and maintain appropriate documentation of subaward agreements and the determination of the applicable FFATA reporting requirements. Views of responsible officials: Management agrees with this isolated audit finding. The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant Cooperative Agreement consists of five one-year budget periods for 11 state agencies, and Budget Period 3 recently ended on June 30, 2023. This project is incrementally funded over the course of each one-year budget period. Therefore, each state subrecipient is tracked per each invoice submitted against the funds obligated throughout the course of the budget period/project. Funding is obligated to state subrecipients based on their spending patterns and incremental funding from DOE, which happens multiple times within each budget period and per state subrecipient. It is important to note that in previous budget periods, funds obligated to the state subrecipients were reported to the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act Subaward Reporting System (FSRS) and the FFATA reporting requirements were fulfilled. As of August 23, 2023, Budget Period 3 subawardee obligated funds were reported to the FSRS and the FFATA reporting requirement have been fulfilled. During this isolated incident that has resulted in an audit finding, management has revised policies and procedures to implement additional tracking and checklists for the FSRS reporting requirement for subawards that include modifications for incremental funding. This will ensure that this requirement is reported to FSRS each time the Board receives incremental funding from DOE, which is obligated to one of the 11 state agencies as stipulated in the cooperative agreement. The Director of Business Operations and Assistant Director of Business Operations are the responsible staff.