OIG questions costs, awards in PSS’ AmeriCorps program

A U.S. Office of Inspector General report has uncovered deficiencies and violations in the Public School System’s operation of the federally funded AmeriCorps program.

In a 48-page document issued on June 6, the OIG Corporation for National and Community Service report questioned $68,288 in federal-share costs and $13,678 in education awards after finding a lack of supporting documents and justification from the program administrator. The report seeks to recover these amounts.

The CNMI AmeriCorps program is an AmeriCorps State program funded by the corporation. It recruits students from public and private schools to provide tutoring and service learning activities to public elementary and middle school students, under the guidance of site supervisors. Participants who complete the program’s terms of service become eligible for education awards.

The OIG report had nine findings, a majority of which cited PSS’ failure to comply with grant requirements and standards.

In one instance, PSS did not conduct a criminal history check for one of its member who was over 18 years old, resulting in the issuance of a questionable $3,345 in living allowance and benefits. The program requires the conduct of criminal history checks and searches for all members above 18 years old.

PSS also failed to provide proper documentation to support one member’s citizenship; the questioned cost amounted to $4,275.

OIG also questioned $8,242 in “unallocable costs” after PSS charged certain expenses to the wrong program year grant fund. Although PSS later gave a copy of the journal voucher that showed the transactions were moved from one award to another, the report states that PSS did not provide any document to demonstrate that it was adjusted.

The report also questioned unallocable costs of $11,770 charged by PSS for airfare and per diem for trips taken in October 2009.

It showed that the AmeriCorps program director’s trip to Denver and Washington, D.C. cost $2,638 in per diem and $3,560 in airfare; $3,560 airfare for a federal grant officer’s trip to Denver, Washington, and Honolulu; and $2,012 per diem for a trip an assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction took to Denver, Washington, and Honolulu.

“These expenses were not allocable to the AmeriCorps award because the only portion of the trip that was AmeriCorps-related was a half-day meeting with the corporation’s program officer. In addition, this trip was not included in the approved grant budget,” states the report.

The OIG pointed out that the D.C. trip was to meet officials of the U.S. departments of Education and Interior and the CNMI congressional delegate, while the Denver trip was to meet with an organization about its growth model and peer review process. The Honolulu trip, on the other hand, was to meet with a private organization on a variety of education issues.

Some $3,229 in travel expenses was also claimed by PSS for a board member who attended the National Service Learning Conference in Nashville. An additional $1,537 related to this trip was also being claimed without supporting documents.

PSS also failed to provide supporting documents for 21 of 88 sampled transactions, totaling $21,395 in one account and $1,127 in another grant account.

PSS claimed $8,940 for the salary of a site supervisor in January 2009 for work performed in December 2008. However, submitted documents only justified $6,000, resulting in a questionable $2,940 undocumented salary.

Another $2,363 education award was also questioned after it was determined that the activities performed by a member were inconsistent with what the grant provided.

A total of $8,952 was also questioned for prorated education awards provided to members in 2010.

Discrepancies in the timesheet of three members were also discovered.

In its responses to the findings, PSS said that it had transferred questioned travel costs to a non-AmeriCorps account. However, it failed to provide other supporting documents for unsupported other costs, saying the files were transferred to another building for storage but were demolished and destroyed.

“Beginning May 1, 2011, all program records will be maintained and retained electronically using a newly implemented PSS policy. This system will ensure that program documents are retained for the time limits described in CNMI and AmeriCorps regulations,” said PSS, adding that it is also finalizing a comprehensive standard operating procedure that addresses compliance with corporation requirements for financial requests.

PSS promised to provide these documents before July 1, 2011.

The school system also promised to implement background checks on members by searching nationally instead of just locally.

It said PSS will conduct training on the proper maintenance of member timesheets prior to the start of new program year, with regular monitoring and checking.

Finally, PSS said it is working on finalizing a comprehensive standard operating procedure that directly addresses policies and procedures and will submit these before July 1.

The OIG will make a final management decision on the report’s findings and recommendation on or before Dec. 6, 2011. PSS has to complete corrective actions by June 6, 2012.

PSS has been approved a total of $1.4 million grant for its AmeriCorps program: $1.061 million for August 2008 through December 2009; and $340,186 for August 2009 through March 2010.

The OIG report states that testing was done from July through November 2010 and findings were discussed with the CNMI on March 16, 2011.