A Performance Audit
An Audit Report on Grants Management at the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas
September 2021
Summary Analysis
The Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) had processes and related controls in place to help ensure that it awards and monitors grants in accordance with state law, rules, and CPRIT policies and procedures. However, CPRIT should strengthen its processes to ensure that it consistently performs a needs assessment for each contract.
The Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) had processes and related controls in place to ensure that it reviewed and awarded grant applications appropriately. Specifically, CPRIT:
- Had adequate policies and procedures in place to ensure that its grant scoring process was effective and free from conflicts of interest.
- Ensured that its honorarium payments were appropriate.
- Had processes to ensure that grant applications were appropriately authorized and that fund matching requirements were met.
CPRIT had processes and related controls over its post-award payments and the monitoring of grant funds to verify that funds were spent in accordance with applicable rules, requirements, and grant provisions. Specifically, CPRIT:
- Had processes in place to monitor that grantees submitted progress, financial status, and Matching Compliance Certifications according to policy.
- Ensured that processes for reimbursement and advanced payments were operating effectively and ensured that those payments were approved and sufficiently supported.
- Had adequate policies and procedures in place for the completion of desk/on-site reviews, approval of no cost extensions , and the close out of grant contracts.
CPRIT had processes in place to help ensure that it performed most required activities related to contract planning and formation as required by the State of Texas Procurement and Contract Management Guide. CPRIT uses multiple third party contractors to assist with its grant administration process, such as the review of grant applications.
CPRIT complied with contract formation requirements for all three contracts tested.
CPRIT also performed a needs assessment for two of the three contracts audited.
CPRIT primarily uses three information systems to support the pre-award and post-award grant management processes audited.
While a third-party vendor administers each of the three systems, CPRIT ensured that the vendor had appropriate user access controls and a disaster recovery process over those systems. In addition, CPRIT had appropriate controls in place to manage employees’ and contractors’ access to the CPRIT Grant Management System.
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