Skip to main content
Audit

Audit  Audit of the Massachusetts Cultural Council

Our office conducted a performance audit of certain activities of the Massachusetts Cultural Council (MCC) for the period July 1, 2022 through June 30, 2024.

Organization: Office of the State Auditor
Date published: November 26, 2025

Executive Summary

In accordance with Section 12 of Chapter 11 of the Massachusetts General Laws, the Office of the State Auditor has conducted a performance audit of certain activities of the Massachusetts Cultural Council (MCC) for the period July 1, 2022 through June 30, 2024.

The purpose of our audit was to determine the following:

  • Did MCC establish and administer grant program funding in accordance with its grant guidelines?
  • Did MCC ensure that local cultural councils (LCCs) complied with the annual reporting requirements outlined in MCC’s “Local Cultural Council Program Guidelines”?
  • Did MCC ensure that corrective actions for noncompliance with program guidelines that it identified during its review of LCCs were implemented in accordance with MCC’s “Local Cultural Council Program Guidelines”?

Below is a summary of our findings, the effects of those findings, and our recommendations, with hyperlinks to each page listed.

  
Finding 1
 		MCC did not ensure that local cultural councils complied with the annual reporting requirements outlined in its “Local Cultural Council Program Guidelines.”
Effect

If MCC does not ensure that LCCs meet deadlines, it increases the risk of public funds being used for activities not related to arts, humanities, and sciences, which could undermine MCC’s commitment to promoting cultural activities. MCC’s enforcement of its “Local Cultural Council Program Guidelines” is also important to LCCs, because noncompliance of LCCs could put their funding at risk.

MCC’s disbursement of grant funding before the LCC submitted its annual report also may have allowed the LCC to use the grant funding without proper accountability or adherence to the intended financial guidelines.

Recommendations
 
  1. MCC should ensure that LCCs comply with annual reporting requirements.
  2. MCC should consistently assist all LCCs with recruiting and maintaining at least five active members, electing officers, and providing training to LCC members to help with the submission of annual reports until LCCs are at 100% compliance with submission deadlines.
  3. MCC should ensure that disbursement of funds is made only after LCCs submit their annual reports.
Finding 2
 		MCC did not ensure that all its contracted employees completed cybersecurity awareness training.
EffectWithout cybersecurity awareness training, these contractors may inadvertently expose sensitive data or expose MCC’s systems to malicious threats.
Recommendations
 
  1. MCC should ensure that all contractors with access to its grant management system complete cybersecurity awareness training.
  2. MCC should develop and implement monitoring controls to ensure that contractors complete the cybersecurity awareness training.

In addition to the conclusions we reached regarding our audit objectives, we also identified an issue not specifically addressed by our objectives regarding the nonsubmission of MCC’s annual report to the Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. See Other Matters for more information.

Table of Contents

Downloads

Help Us Improve Mass.gov  with your feedback

Please do not include personal or contact information.
Feedback