State Education Department

Selected Child Nutrition Program Payments

In the federal Child Nutrition Program, which is administered in New York State by the State Education Department, cash assistance is made available so that schools can provide nutritious meals to children. The meals themselves are provided by contractors that serve one or more schools. The contractors are paid for the number of meals they claim to have provided. We audited $421,403 of payment claims made by three contractors and found that $124,446 of the claims (29.5 percent) were unsupported or inappropriate, including $24,408 that appeared to have been knowingly prepared in error. We recommended the Department recover the unsupported and inappropriate payments and improve its oversight of such payment claims. We also referred certain matters for possible criminal investigation.

For a complete copy of Report 2007-S-74 click here.