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expenditures against established budgets. Negative variances are immediately addressed and corrected if necessary. Underutilized budgets are reallocated to other line items of the budget.

DECAL has established policies and procedures for budgeting, procurement, payments and monitoring of all expenditures. DECAL maintains detailed budgets and accounting records to provide timely and credible financial information to the CCDF program. DECAL follows state and federal accounting and reporting rules and records transactions as they occur.

Annual audits and reviews are conducted by the Georgia Department of Audits (Single Audit, Annual Comprehensive reports) and corrective action plans are immediately implemented to resolve findings or best practice suggestions. Internal controls are periodically evaluated for operating efficiency such as preventing and detecting errors or improper payments. c. How the results inform implementation. Describe: DECAL’s monthly financial reports reflected programmatic decisions on spending grant funds. DECAL creates monthly and quarterly financial reports for senior and executive leadership. Timely decisions can be made to address financial concerns such as potential over-expenditures or revenue shortfalls. d. Other. Describe: DECAL adheres to state accounting policy and federal regulations in making financial decisions. This adherence includes proper governmental accounting practices, review of federal regulations such as the Uniform Administrative Grant requirements (Part 200), and state procurement rules. 10.1.4 Identifying risk Describe the processes the Lead Agency uses to identify risk in the CCDF program including: a. Each process used by the Lead Agency to identify risk (including entities responsible for implementing each process). Describe: DECAL performs risk assessments using the GAO Framework, known as the Green Book. Risk factors included are: Complexity of Activity, Centralization of Processes, Location, History of Past Errors, Volume of Activity, Automation, Susceptibility of Fraud. Elements of risk assessment are considered when assessing risk and include Likelihood, Financial Impact, Operational Impact, Strategic Impact, and Compliance Impact. In addition, the Audits and Compliance Division uses data obtained through multiple Lead Agency programs to inform the audit team about risk areas within the program. Furthermore, the CAPS Quality Assurance and Payments team implemented a new process whereby billing data is analyzed upon submission to DECAL to identify red flags that can then be investigated before payment. The Payment Assurance team identifies red flags with each billing cycle and creates a red flag report showing issues that can be investigated before payment. b. The frequency of each risk assessment. Describe: The Department of Early Care and Learning (DECAL) conducts annual risk assessments using the US GAO’s Standards for Internal Controls (https://www.gao.gov/greenbook). Risk assessments are documented and submitted to auditors during the Single Audit process. Risk assessments are reevaluated if changes are made to current policies and procedures. The Child Care and Parent Services (CAPS) Quality Assurance and Payments team reviews multiple items/data