The US Department of Education has found that local staff is still behind on the skills set needed to effectively manage and account for federal grants.
The federal agency is leaving open 12 outstanding items in ASG’s corrective action plan for the high risk designation of the local Department of Education because it doesn’t feel enough progress has been made in resolving them.
One of the items relates to training.
USDOE said this item in the High Risk Corrective Action Plan involved ASG providing adequate training to staff on current federal laws, and cost principals so that all personnel would be knowledgeable and familiar with the federal cost principles in order to fully comply with federal regulations, particularly, allowable costs.
ASG had scheduled a 20-hour introductory basic accounting training course which was offered by the Graduate School USA.
But USDOE said while this type of training would give participants minimum basic concepts of accounting, more advanced level of training focused on allowable costs would be more beneficial to the staff who process and review transactions for federal grants and facilitate compliance with federal regulations.
The local DOE’s main grantor also encourages ASG to stay current with the recently issued Uniform Guidance and to ensure training incorporates the most current regulations and standard for administrative guidance for effective grant management.
An area that USDOE was pleased with, is that ASG is working with a company called Willis of Tennessee for obtaining actuarial analysis of its Workmen Compensation data.
USDOE says it’s looking forward to the completion of a biannual premium rate review for the Workmen Compensation claims and its outcome.
