Natural Resources Conservation Service’s Financial Statements for Fiscal Years 2021 and 2020

We recommend that NRCS management, along with FPAC-BC: Provide adequate training to personnel relating to the accrual policy.

We recommend that NRCS management, along with FPAC-BC: Provide additional guidance and/or training to employees over the recording of capitalizable expenditures.

We recommend that NRCS management, along with FPAC -BC: Establish mechanisms to enforce accountability of control operators in ensuring the existence, accuracy, and timeliness of expense activity.

We recommend that NRCS management, along with Farm Production and Conservation Business Center (FPAC-BC): Design and implement procedures that enable management to completely and accurately accrue for expenditures that are incurred but not recorded as of period end. If the process involves an estimate, then additional procedures (i.e., retrospective review) over the estimate should be performed.

We recommend that NRCS management, along with FPAC-BC: Continue to review and revise as necessary its internal control program to plan, perform, monitor, and report and communicate a comprehensive, adequate, and appropriate internal assessment of the operating effectiveness of internal controls. This includes establishing clear timelines to implement and close corrective action plans and provide adequate training to process owners to create relevant and attainable plans that can be successfully completed within one year.