The Office of the State Auditor released the Statewide Single Audit Report yesterday. Findings related to the N.C. Department of Public Instruction include:
The Department did not effectively monitor spending of the Title I, Part A22 subawards provided to local education agencies (LEA) and charter schools (collectively called subrecipients).
The Department submitted incomplete and inaccurate data in their 2018 annual National Public Education Financial Survey (Survey) to the National Center for Education Statistics.
The Department did not timely communicate fiscal monitoring results of local school districts and charter schools, collectively referred to as subrecipients. Auditors noted deficiencies in three federal programs: Title I, Part A; Title II, Part A; and School Improvement Grants (SIG).
The Department improperly charged $18.3 million of expenditures to a Special Education – Grants to States award that was no longer available for obligations.
The Department did not adequately conduct its fiscal monitoring of subrecipients receiving $25.4 million in federal pass-through funding for the 21st Century Community Learning Centers (21st CCLC) program.
The Department did not timely notify subrecipients of federal award information for three audited federal programs including Title I, Part A; Title II, Part A; and 21st Century Community Learning Centers (CCLC).
The Department held $752,764 in federal funds that were not needed to immediately pay expenditures of the [School Improvement Grants] program.
The State Board of Education released a statement about the audit today. They wrote, “We respect and appreciate the work of the State Auditor and take very seriously the Findings that were identified in the Audit Report. The Board is disappointed by the number of Findings and the concerns raised by those Findings.”