The objectives of our audit were to determine whether the Texas Education Agency (Texas) established and implemented systems of internal control that (1) provided reasonable assurance that Immediate Aid to Restart School Operations (Restart) program funds were appropriately allocated and (2) ensured that local educational agencies (LEA) and nonpublic schools used Restart program funds for allowable and intended purposes.
Texas established and implemented systems of internal control that provided reasonable assurance that Restart program funds were allocated appropriately and that sufficiently ensured that LEAs and nonpublic schools used Restart program funds for allowable and intended purposes. However, we identified instances of noncompliance with applicable Federal requirements and guidance at one of the three LEAs we reviewed and at the one educational service center covered by our review. One of the LEAs reviewed improperly charged $34,065 in unallowable personnel expenditures to the Restart program. We also found that the educational service center reviewed did not obtain or maintain control and ownership to materials at nonpublic schools that were funded by the Restart program, totaling $84,243, as required by the Hurricane Education Recovery Act.
We made four recommendations, including that (1) requiring the LEA to return $34,065 in personnel expenditures that it charged to the Restart program and other payroll expenditures that Texas determines to be unallowable and (2) ensuring that the educational service centers providing services and assistance to nonpublic schools are maintaining control and ownership to materials and equipment purchased using Restart program funds.
Oversight and Monitoring—Grantees
This is one of numerous reports the OIG has issued on State and Territory use of disaster recovery funding. See more information on our Disaster Recovery page.