Office of the Legislative Auditor - Financial Audit Division

Report Summary
Department of Human Services
Federal Compliance Audit

 

Financial Audit Division Report 14-11

Released March 26, 2014

---

Conclusion

The Department of Human Services generally complied with and had internal controls to ensure compliance with certain legal requirements applicable to its major federal programs for fiscal year 2013. However, as noted in Findings 1 and 5, the department did not comply with and did not have adequate internal controls to comply with federal eligibility requirements for the Medical Assistance and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families programs. In addition, the department had other internal control weaknesses and instances of noncompliance, including some findings repeated from our prior reports,¹ as noted in the findings in this report.

Key Findings

• The Department of Human Services did not fully identify, analyze, and document its internal controls related to compliance with federal single audit requirements. This is a repeat finding.
• The Department of Human Services allowed employees to have incompatible access to the state’s accounting system without implementing adequate mitigating controls.
• The Department of Human Services did not identify and reduce the benefits of some recipients of federal cash assistance who did not cooperate with child support enforcement requirements. This is a repeat finding.
• The Department of Human Services did not adequately monitor some aspects of the Child Care Assistance Program.

Audit Scope

Our scope included programs we determined to be major federal programs for the State of Minnesota for fiscal year 2013, including Medicaid Cluster, Child Support Enforcement, Child Care Cluster, Social Services Block Grant, Foster Care, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.²

 

---

¹ Office of the Legislative Auditor, Financial Audit Division Report 13-15, Department of Human Services Federal Compliance Audit, issued July 11, 2013, and Office of the Legislative Auditor, Financial Audit Division Report 13-05, Department of Human Services Information Verification in Eligibility Determinations, Special Review, issued March 26, 2013.
²A cluster of programs is a group of closely related programs that have similar compliance requirements and are treated as a single program.