CPB Claims Public Media Platform Funding 'Reasonable' After Critical IG Audit

that work was reasonable.” CPB's Office of Inspector General released an audit report Wednesday of CPB's grant for the PMP project that found that there were “material noncompliance issues” that resulted in more than $2.6 million in questioned costs and more than $135,000 in undocumented expenditures that could have been spent more efficiently that PMP had incurred but not yet claimed from CPB. None of PMP's five founding member entities, including NPR and PBS, “maintained project accounting records” to support $835,000 in “leadership labor expenses” and three of the founding entities “failed to maintain” documentation to support more than $1.5 million in software development services, the OIG said. NPR billed CPB on a flat-fee basis instead of billing for actual costs as required by its technical services agreement, resulting in $110,000 in questioned costs on NPR's billings to CPB and more than $135,000 in “funds put to better use,” the OIG said. PMP overclaimed $97,153 in fringe benefits and indirect costs, the OIG said. PMP didn't maintain its accounting records in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), resulting in “a material internal control weakness over financial reporting," the OIG said. The CPB OIG recommended CPB management seek recovery of the more than $2.6 million in costs associated with noncompliance issues and not pay out the $135,000 in costs to NPR associated with “funds put to better use." The CPB should also ensure future grant agreements specify that labor expenses be billed based on actual project-level timekeeping records and that leadership costs be claimed based on the organization's indirect cost policy, the OIG said. CPB should require PMP to record financial information in accordance with GAAP principles and ensure financial reports “can be reconciled to PMP general ledgers,” OIG said. “We share the OIG’s concern about the lack of record-keeping to substantiate other labor charges under the grant agreement,” CPB said in a Thursday news release. “While there is no disagreement that extensive, valuable work was performed on this project appropriate for reimbursement by CPB, CPB will be working with the OIG and the PMP to determine whether the charges for the work completed can be substantiated.” CPB plans to more fully respond to the OIG report by Dec. 30 and “will make its final determination based on further inquiries to the Public Media Platform, Inc., which could substantiate some of the OIG’s questioned expenditures. Until then, the amount of any refunds that may be appropriate cannot be known.”