Lincoln Hall Boys' Haven, an Administration for Children and Families Grantee, Did Not Always Comply With Applicable Federal and State Policies and Requirements

Lincoln Hall Boys' Haven (Lincoln Hall), an Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC) grantee located in Lincolndale, New York, did not meet or properly document that it met certain safety requirements for the care and release of children in its custody. Further, it could not identify actual expenditures incurred and charged to the UAC program, and did not monitor its subrecipients' and contractors' performance. Specifically, Lincoln Hall did not adequately meet employer requirements for 27 of 35 employee files reviewed and it did not have evidence of the proper care and release of children in its custody for 70 of 75 children sampled. In addition, Lincoln Hall could not identify the actual expenditures incurred that comprised the $29.8 million charged to the UAC program, the entire amount that Lincoln Hall received in fiscal years 2014 and 2015, and did not ensure that its subrecipients and contractors met the terms and conditions of their agreements.

As a result, Lincoln Hall may have placed the health and safety of children at risk, may have charged unallowable expenditures to the UAC program, and the services provided by its subrecipients and contractors could have been inadequate.

We recommended that Lincoln Hall (1) adhere to policies that meet applicable safety requirements for the care and release of children in its custody and maintain supporting documentation, (2) provide documentation to support the $29.8 million of program costs or refund the Federal Government, and (3) develop policies and procedures that adhere to requirements for monitoring subrecipients and contractors. We also made a series of other procedural recommendations.

In written comments on our draft report, Lincoln Hall agreed with many of the audit findings but did not indicate concurrence or nonconcurrence with our recommendations. However, Lincoln Hall described steps that it had taken or planned to take to address our recommendations and provided supporting documentation.