Although state agencies allocate most federal funds properly, an audit conducted recently by the Legislative Audit Bureau revealed state agencies mishandled federal grants in a few significant areas during the 2007-'08 fiscal year.
Mishaps occurred at a few UW campuses in disbursing federal funds, creating a total of $142,169 in disputed use of federal money.
""Given the amount of federal funding that we manage, this is a very, very small fraction,"" UW System spokesperson David Giroux said. ""Nonetheless, we take these findings very seriously.""
According to the report, UW-Madison, UW-Milwaukee and UW-Oshkosh did not request federal reimbursement for student financial aid in a timely manner, costing a loss of $183,500 to the state in interest.
All three campuses reimbursed the remaining balances and pledged to work toward more timely transactions.
The audit found issues at many of the campuses concerning monitoring the enrollment statuses of students. Because of a technical error, four UW-Parkside students whose enrollment statuses rendered them ineligible for aid received financial aid, costing the federal government $28,982. UW-Parkside has made necessary changes to assure this mistake does not happen again.
""In each of these cases, our campuses have specifically responded to these findings, and have in most cases already taken the corrective action,"" Giroux said.
Gov. Jim Doyle created the new Office of Recovery and Reinvestment to monitor stimulus funds. The LAB will play a role in monitoring those funds as well.
LAB Financial Audit Director Carolyn Stittleburg said allocating the incoming federal stimulus dollars will be a big job, but she is hopeful that agencies have the proper systems in place to make sure they are spent according to federal regulations.
""I would say generally overall the agencies do have good controls in place, and hopefully they'll be able to spend these funds in an efficient manner,"" Stittleburg said.
