Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — The American Samoa Medicaid State Agency — referred to as the ASG Medicaid Office — “did not follow established [ASG] Payment processes” as well as “inadequate filing of payment supporting documents,” says one of the findings by the Territorial Audit Office (TAO) following a performance audit for fiscal years ending Sept. 30, 2022 of Medicaid Office.

Part seven of the Samoa News reports on the performance audit, looking at the payment processes finding, with TAO’s recommendation that the Medicaid Agency “needs to improve several payment processes.”

The TAO audit cited some of the “administrative findings” from its review of payment vouchers, in which the Agency did not follow established ASG payment processes.

For example, the Agency processed payment(s) without original or actual invoices. In one incident, auditors found that payment of the lease was made from a statement, without the actual invoice.

Another example: for one vendor, the trading name was not updated in the ASG Treasury system — payment was then processed to a different name. According to the auditors, the main vendor submitted a request for the payment with a list of invoices from a third party to be used to process payments.

TAO cited provisions of ASG payment policies in which proper supporting documentation, proper invoice, proper obligation documents (purchase order or contract/ lease), proper receiving report or special certification on contract — are required.

It recommends that management strengthen its supervisory checks and ensure that all payments are processed per ASG payment policies and procedures. “It is important that payment is recorded under the correct account for accurate reporting and budgeting purposes,” the auditors noted.

On the issue of “inadequate filing of payment supporting documents — missing documents,” auditors explained the ASG centralized payment system at Treasury, to which invoices and vouchers for payment are referred collectively as "supporting documents”, are received and reviewed for accuracy, completeness and compliance with the ASG procedures then recorded on the ASG One-Solution system and certified for payment.

Once the payments vouchers are certified and corresponding checks are issued; whether it be via electronic payment or paper check, the original supporting documents are kept at the ASG Department of Treasury (Disbursement Section) with copies kept by the respective ASG agencies.

During the audit review, TAO found that the Medicaid Agency did not file all relevant supporting documents for a selected ten-payment sample cited in the report. According to the auditors, the lack of supporting documents occurred because:

•           the Agency did not obtain copies from the Department of Treasury and

•           obtained copies but were misfiled.

“Although we did not find any errors in this area, complete supporting documents should be adequately maintained both at the ASG Department of Treasury (Disbursement Section) and the Medicaid Agency,” the auditors said. “This helps ensure that financial records are complete and accurate.”

TAO said that the Agency shall ensure that all payment supporting document copies should be securely filed to avoid being misplaced or lost.

In its response, Medicaid management agrees and will proceed as recommended. “We will review our internal procedures and workflow to improve documentation and record keeping,” Medicaid said.