More articles discussing the California AG’s enforcement actions over medical GIK

July 5, 2018, 5:30 am

…What accounting rules sometime feel like.  Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.

Here are three more articles discussing the cease-and-desist orders issued by the California Attorney General against three large charities who have large amounts of donated medicine. Previous post discusses a few earlier articles.

Update:  Food for the Poor has provided a response to the Boston Globe article, which you may read here.

5/30/18 – editorial in Sun Sentinel – Food for the Poor controversy reveals need for nonprofit transparency – Editorial highlights that using US pricing compared to international pricing increases apparent efficiency.  The challenge, visible in the article, is that the charity claims 95% of all expenses are for program and the article says the California AG claims 66.7% of cash donations are used for program.

In a statement which should sober every accountant, CPA, auditor of NPOs, and staff of R&D charities, the editorial asks:

(S)uch accounting practices may be legal, and they may be the industry standard, but are they honest?

Let me paraphrase two questions embedded in that comment (yeah, CPAs actually talk that way – we look for embedded derivatives and embedded leases). The editorial is asking:

  • Is the industry standard consistent with GAAP?
  • Is either GAAP or the industry standard honest?

Read the rest of this entry »

Leave a Comment » | Non-profit accounting | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by Jim Ulvog

Guest post: Implementation of ASU 2016-14 Presentation of Financial Statements of Not-for-Profit Entities

July 2, 2018, 6:48 am

Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.

Julie Morgan, CPA, is an audit and accounting partner in the Orange County office of Ronald Blue & Co., CPAs and Consultants. Ms. Morgan works with many churches and other not-for-profit charities in Southern California. She has over 17 years experience in public accounting. The firm’s website is https://www.ronbluecpa.com. 

Ms. Morgan provides the following overview of the soon to be implemented major changes in accounting and financial reporting for not-for-profit organizations. These changes will be required at the end of 2018.

 

By Julie A. Morgan, CPA

Some have hailed it “the most significant new guidance for not-for-profits in 20 years.”  So what is ASU 2016-14 all about, and how is it going to affect my non-profit?

We’ll get to that momentarily, but first, the effective date: Implementation of ASU 2016-14 is mandatory for all non-profits, effective “for fiscal years beginning after December 31, 2017.”  A number of our December 31, 2017 clients early adopted, and so far the experience has been significant for some clients, but not for others.

The main provisions of the ASU are as follows:

Read the rest of this entry »

Leave a Comment » | Non-profit accounting | Permalink
Posted by Jim Ulvog

2018 nonprofit risk alert is available. New edition adds discussion on valuation of GIK as rebuttal to California AG.

June 11, 2018, 8:38 am

Cover of 2018 NFP risk alert, used under fair use since I’m recommending you buy the document.

The AICPA has released the 2018 edition of Not-for-Profit Entities Industry Developments.

If you are a CPA serving the not-for-profit community, you need to read this document each year. It provides a survey of the accounting and auditing issues affecting the nonprofit world.

If you are an auditor, there are several other risk alerts you ought to be reading every year.

If you are working for a nonprofit, these alerts would give you a good survey of accounting issues in general and the audit issues your CPA will be dealing with this year.

Valuation of Gifts in Kind

Of particular interest are new comments responsive to the challenge from the California AG over valuation of GIK. The 2017 and 2016 editions had minimal comments on GIK.

The 2018 edition has a new section, Gifts-in-Kind: Reporting Contributions of Nonfinancial Assets, in paragraphs .53 through .57, which describes the AICPA’s interpretation of GAAP.

Years after the mebendazole issue has faded away, the second bullet point of paragraph .56 says that when GIK is sourced outside the U.S. and is not approved for distribution in the U.S., the meds should be valued at international prices. (If you have been following this issue for years, you realize the concession made by that comment.)

Read the rest of this entry »

Leave a Comment » | Auditing, GIK - gift-in-kind valuation, Non-profit accounting | Tagged: | Permalink
Posted by Jim Ulvog

Some additional news reports on the California AG’s enforcement actions

May 14, 2018, 5:00 am

Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.

There are a few recent articles discussing enforcement action by the California Attorney General regarding the accounting for donated medicine used by three national charities. Looks like the issue is beginning to get a bit wider attention than this teeny tiny little ol’ blog.

Inflated Expectations / What’s going on with foreign affairs nonprofit Food for the Poor? from Slate on May 10, 2018, provides a non-technical description of the issues raised by the California AG.

Good explanation of medicine valuation, near-term expiry, joint cost allocation, principal market, access, and materiality issues without ever using those words. Even hints at daisy chain and SFAS 136 agency transactions.

Let me suggest a couple of exercises for accountants in the audience.

First, read through the article another time identifying all the accounting issues touched upon. Think about that as an illustration of how to describe technical accounting issues without being technical. (Yeah, I know, what a crazy idea – explaining stuff so people will understand.)

Second exercise is to read through the article thinking about how non-accountants would respond to each of those ideas if it was the first time they had heard about it.

How many of those GAAP accounting treatments would actually make sense?

How many would seem flat-out silly to people who haven’t spent years working with accounting rules?

Description of one shipment

Read the rest of this entry »

Leave a Comment » | Non-profit accounting, Non-profit Tax | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by Jim Ulvog

Once again: The time left to clean up the valuation of GIK meds is running out.

May 10, 2018, 7:51 am

 

See that fire siren at the top of the city’s fire hall?

The whistle is so loud my ears hurt.

The fire is valuation of donated medicine.

The town is the non-profit community.

 

It is time to rerun my fire alarm commentary.

My previous post provided a technical description of regulators’ concerns over accounting for donated medicine in the not-for-profit world. This post provides a word picture of the current situation.

Originally posted way back on November 9, 2012, here is my six-year-old discussion with some minor changes:

 

 

There is a fire burning in the nonprofit community. The fire is the issue of valuing donated pharmaceuticals. Primarily issue is about mebendazole.  Albendazole and antibiotics are involved, but to a lesser degree. There are many alarm bells ringing. 

The loudest fire alarm went off yesterday.

Read the rest of this entry »

Leave a Comment » | GIK - gift-in-kind valuation, Non-profit accounting | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by Jim Ulvog

Regulators have serious problems with how the nonprofit community is accounting for donated medicine.

May 8, 2018, 1:25 pm

Image courtesy of Adobe Stock

There is a serious problem in the nonprofit community in terms of accounting for donated medicine. Three major enforcement actions by various regulators tell us that the regulators have serious reservations about how charities are dealing with gifts-in-kind.

Those of us working in the charity world need to ponder what could be making so many regulators so concerned.

50 Attorneys General

The rumors in the wind mentioned in my next post were discussed in 2012.  That turned into a major enforcement action by the Federal Trade Commission and all 50 state Attorneys General against 4 cancer charities. (See my posts under the tag FTC.) That was in 2015.

I’m not aware of any followup by that group and I’ll guess the reason is the complexity of coordinating a 50+ member committee.

For the FTC and all 50 Attorneys General to all be on the same page on an issue should serve as a warning they believe there is a serious problem.

IRS

Read the rest of this entry »

2 Comments | Non-profit accounting, Non-profit Tax | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by Jim Ulvog

Some details in the appeals filed by 3 charities

April 30, 2018, 12:44 pm

Image courtesy of Adobe Stock

As mentioned previously, appeals have been filed by the three charities receiving cease & desist orders from the California A.G.

This discussion will highlight some comments in the appeals. Will have a few observation from an auditor perspective along the way. Might want to get a fresh cup of coffee before you dig in. This will be a long post.

Previous posts:

 

Catholic Medical Mission Board appeal

At seven pages, this appeal is a bit shorter than the others. The page count includes the proof of service and a cover sheet which is the page the AG provided to request an appeal.

In the appeal, CMMB denies all the factual allegations and conclusions of law (para 4). Specific assertions are listed for emphasis:

  • The AG is not properly interpreting GAAP.
  • Geographic restrictions on medicine do not make the US a prohibited market for valuation purposes.
  • Representations to California citizens are neither unfair nor deceptive.

In the appeal, CMMB requests:

Read the rest of this entry »

Leave a Comment » | Auditing, Non-profit accounting | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by Jim Ulvog

« Previous Entries
Next Entries »