Quinsigamond Community College's use of American Recovery and Reinvestment Funds

This is a state audit of how Quinsigamond Community College used federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act stimulus funds during part of 2009 and 2010.

“Our audit scope was limited to a review of federal stimulus funds that QCC received under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).”

Auditors checked whether QCC spent ARRA money for the right purposes, followed grant and reporting rules, and accurately reported jobs created or kept.

“The objectives of our audit were to evaluate QCC’s controls over American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) expenditures; determine whether ARRA funds were expended for their intended purposes and in compliance with applicable laws, rules and regulations; determine whether QCC is complying with ARRA accounting and reporting requirements as well as other grant requirements; and identify the number of jobs created and/or retained reported by QCC.”

ARRA money was public stimulus funding, so QCC needed strong controls to prevent waste, misuse, or spending on the wrong things.

“Internal controls developed to ensure that ARRA funds are safeguarded against loss, theft, or misuse.”

For residents, this audit explains how more than $4 million in federal stimulus funds at a public community college were used, including for employee compensation, student aid, work-study, and a parking lot project.

“QCC’s budget of these funds included amounts for state employee compensation; student financial aid; administrative expenses; federal work-study payments, and construction (i.e., parking lot repair and addition).”

QCC spent and reported the funds largely as required, but its paperwork did not clearly show an ARRA-specific risk assessment or ARRA-specific internal controls.

“Although QCC had developed an ARRA section in its ICP, QCC did not document its ARRA-specific risk assessment.”

QCC said it had started documenting the needed risk assessment and would review and update its internal control plan.

“QCC has taken action to document a risk assessment in reference to the ARRA funds awarded.”

The main concern was not that auditors found the money misspent, but that weak documentation can raise the chance that funds are used inappropriately.

“Because QCC did not document its ARRA-specific risk assessment and did not document and/or clearly reference existing internal controls over ARRA expenditures, the potential for inappropriate use of these funds increases.”

ARRA means the federal stimulus law; FTEs means full-time-equivalent jobs; ICP means QCC’s internal control and policy manual, which should explain risks, controls, and procedures for handling funds.

“Each department has a system of internal controls consisting of an Internal Control Plan that summarizes objectives, risks, controls, and a detailed set of control activities that mitigate risk.”