9082 Emergency Relocation Funds Fiscal Management | ADMINISTRATION-5600-MANUAL

Georgia Division of Aging Services
Administrative Manual

Chapter:

9075 Relocation Funds

Effective Date:

Section Title:

Emergency Relocation Funds Fiscal Management

Reviewed or Updated in:

2020-01

Section Number:

9082

Previous Update:

Summary Statement

The Division of Aging Services Fiscal Administration Section will monitor expenditure of ERF and will reconcile database entries to include programmatic (DDS) and fiscal (People Soft) databases.

Basic Considerations

APS, TERF Case Management and PGO Staff follow policy/procedures for authorizing ERF funds using DAS Data System (DDS), obtaining all required documentation as required by APS and DFCS accounting policy.

Refer to 9080 Emergency Relocation Funds (ERF) and 9081 ERF and DFCS Regional Accounting of this manual for the authorization process.

Procedures

The following procedures are followed at the beginning of each fiscal year to establish the local budgets for ERF.

Step 1

Before the state fiscal year begins, the DFCS budget officer contacts the ERF Administrator to obtain the initial allocations effective July 1.

Initial allocations are based on previous year expenditures. Each DFCS regional accounting 532 budget has a minimum of $5000.00. There are 15 DFCS Regional Accounting Offices.

A reserve amount is maintained in acct 160 and used as needed to meet ERF obligations prior to shifting funds between regional accounting budgets.

Step 2

Once loaded, the DFCS budget officer notifies the ERF Administrator who then notifies the DAS Director’s Office, APS Field Management and PGO Field Management staff of the availability of funds.

Monthly Monitoring ERF Administrator

The ERF Administrator is responsible for initiating ERF monitoring using the following steps:

Step 1

After DFCS ‘closes’ the books at the end of the month, usually during the last week of the month, the ERF Administrator contacts the DFCS Budget officer for the month end ERF 532 account balances.

Step 2

The DFCS budget office provides an excel spreadsheet which includes the following information:

DFCS Region
County number (LA?) for the Regional Accounting office
ERF SFY Budget for each region and statewide total
Year to Date Expenditures for each region and statewide total
Budget balance
Suspended Monthly Income Expenditure Report (MIER)
Amount in account “160”

Each month will have a separate tab on the spreadsheet.

Step 3

The ERF Administrator then runs the “ERF Expenditures by Regional Accounting Office – Detail” report in DDS. The report specifies the client name, DDS ID# and ERF amount authorized in DDS for the region and period provided.

Reports are generated by month, starting with July forward.

Step 4

The report is compared to the DFCS account balance summary report to note any discrepancies.

Both data sets are sent to the following for review and distribution:

APS and PGO Section Managers
APS and PGO Field Operations Managers
APS District Managers

Should there be significant difference noted, this is highlighted and action requested if indicated.

Step 5

The ERF Administrator reviews all budget balances and requests DFCS transfer funds from account 160 to the various DFCS regional account budgets. A $5000 balance in each region is maintained to the extent possible.

Once account 160 is depleted, funds are moved within the regional accounting office budgets with an attempt to maintain a $5000 balance in each region.

The request is made using the spread excel spreadsheet to show all movements.

Step 6

Once the spreadsheet is received by the DFCS, budget officer, the funds are transferred as requested and a revised ERF balance sheet showing the revised ERF account balances is forwarded to the ERF Administrator.

If at any time the expenditures at the local office exceed the local office account balance, the MIERS is suspended. No authorizations will be processed until sufficient funds are provided to cover the expenditures requested.

Step 7

All changes are sent to the APS and PGO Section Managers and Field Operations Managers who then forward to the District Managers and local supervisors, so each is aware of the account balances and can better plan.

Monthly Monitoring Field Supervisory Staff

APS (including TERF Case Management) and PGO supervisors will reconcile ERF authorizations against the DFCS monthly budget reports so discrepancies can be detected early.

Local DFCS accounting staff are accommodating when APS requests a copy of the report.

Any discrepancies must be resolved by:

Assuring documentation in AIMS is current
Notifying the ERF Administrator for assistance

Periodic Monitoring ERF Administrator

Supplemental activities completed by the ERF Administrator include:

Review ERF expenditures via Crystal reports periodically throughout the month to determine account discrepancies.

CE Review

Example: Region “99” is listed on the ERF Expenditures by Regional Accounting Offices-Detail report. Region 99 indicates that the RA accounting office was left off the ERF authorization screen. The ERF Administrator can correct this easily.

Closure Report

APS (including TERF Case Management) and PGO supervisors must periodically generate and reviews the ERF closure report as the ERF eligibility period is 1 year. The case must be reviewed and the ERF eligibility closed appropriately.

The ERF Administrator generates and reviews the ERF closure report no less often than quarterly. When discrepancies are noted or a closure date has not been entered, the ERF Administrator will contact the APS District Manager or the PGO Field Operations Manager to request clarification or closure.

State Fiscal Year End Closure

ERF is available during a state fiscal year. DFCS accounting suspends payment processing mid-June of each year in order to reconcile all accounts. APS and PGO clients remain eligible for ERF funds during the accounting suspension. In order to reflect accurate expenditures, all authorizations requested and approved during this suspension period will be post-dated to July 1 to coincide with the new fiscal funding year in order to align ERF authorizations with DFCS expenditure reports.