Los Angeles County's Efforts to Account for the Use of Public Health Preparedness and Response to Bioterrorism Program Funds and Monitoring of Subrecipients

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:

The objectives of this review were to determine whether the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services (LA County):  (i) properly recorded, summarized and reported bioterrorism preparedness transactions by specific focus area designated in the cooperative agreements, (ii) established controls and procedures to monitor subrecipients' expenditures of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) funds; and (iii) used bioterrorism program (Program) funds to supplant funds previously provided by other sources.  We found that:  (i) LA County did not properly report Program expenditures to CDC for the two reporting periods ended August 30, 2000 and 2001, (ii) had not conducted on site monitoring reviews because the subrecipients were generally in the planning stage; and (iii) had not used Program funding to supplant existing State or local funds.  We recommended that LA County:  (i) submit final Financial Status Reports that include actual expenditures with no outstanding obligations for reporting periods ended August 30, 2000 and 2001 and ensure that, in the future, final Financial Status Reports are submitted for reporting periods required by CDC; and (ii) implement the subrecipient monitoring procedures as planned.  LA County officials concurred with our recommendations.