FINANCIAL SERVICES
MISSION
The Audit Unit's mission is to provide guidance to ensure financial integrity to all HIDTA State and Local operations. To improve the knowledge and skills of financial transactions affecting state and local operations.
The NHAC audit support to HIDTAs takes several forms. These include,
but are not limited to the following activities:
The NHAC Audit Unit -
Is contracted by the Executive Office of the President and Office of National Drug Control Policy (EOP/ONDCP). The NHAC Audit Unit provides guidance to ensure financial integrity and to mitigate any potential finding in future Financial Audits. The Unit conducts a detailed page-by-page Audit review of all HIDTA program related costs. The NHAC Audit is conducted before any payment is released to a grantee to mitigate errors, improper payments and ensuring proper corroborating supporting documentation for accounting documents of all 33 HIDTA’s. This ensures all payments to grantees are for HIDTA program related costs and are incurred according to the Program Policy Budget Guidance. In addition, the NHAC Audit Unit provides HIDTA’s and ONDCP with Monthly reporting and reconciliation of HIDTA related expenditures, financial records for the entire program between The Financial Management System, and The Payment Management System.
Financial and Administrative Guidelines
The NHAC Audit Unit assists all HIDTAs in meeting ONDCP standards through their
development and dissemination of procedural information as well as through
their work with individual initiatives and task forces. This assures that
your funded state and local projects are operating with appropriate financial
controls, and it provides a common language for the identification and resolution
of financials issues affecting your operations.
Budget Preparation
The NHAC Audit Unit provides "hands-on" assistance to all
HIDTA state and local initiatives in the preparation of their original budget
requests. This assures timely and accurate budget submissions and supports
the HIDTAs' mission by allowing initiative managers and HIDTA Directors to
concentrate on the strategic value of funding requests, rather than on the
mechanics of the budget process.
To request assistance, contact Rita M. Escobar, the NHAC Audit Unit Manager,
at 305-715-7752.
Funding Awards
As quickly as funds are made available and executed award letter is received for the grantee, the NHAC Audit Unit assists with SF-424 application packages processing and collection; the document that - for many state and local
initiatives - must be formally accepted by their local agency or governing
body, before spending and operations are authorized.
Disbursements, Reconciliations and Reprogramming
Throughout the year, the NHAC Audit Unit receives and processes disbursement
requests. These requests, submitted routinely by all HIDTA Participating
Agencies, are reconciled by the Center against the budget originally approved
by ONDCP. They are also checked for required local approvals, to ensure that
HIDTA priorities are not altered through budgetary processes.
The Unit provides a level of quality control, assuring you that the transmission
of checks or wire transfers for needed operational resources is not delayed
by subsequent administrative reviews and rejections. It also assures HIDTA
directors that the relationship between HIDTAs and their participating agencies
can be focused on operational commitments, rather than on funding emergencies
during the budget year by ensuring that expenditures conform with original
budgets, that appropriate approvals have been obtained for the reprogramming
of funds, and by making corrections that guarantee compliance with appropriate
financial guidelines.