Audit 368815

Criteria or specific requirement: 2 CFR 200.430(i)(1)(viii) states that “budget estimates (i.e., estimates determined before the services are performed) alone do not qualify as support for charges to Federal awards, but may be used for interim accounting purposes, provided that: (A) The system for establishing the estimates produces reasonable approximations of the activity actually performed; (B) Significant changes in the corresponding work activity (as defined by the non-Federal entity's written policies) are identified and entered into the records in a timely manner. Short term (such as one or two months) fluctuation between workload categories need not be considered as long as the distribution of salaries and wages is reasonable over the longer term; and (C) The non-Federal entity's system of internal controls includes processes to review after-the-fact interim changes made to a Federal award based on budget estimates. All necessary adjustments must be made such that the final amount charged to the Federal award is accurate, allowable, and properly allocated.” Condition: Grant hours are not consistently tracked on employees’ timesheets. Wages charged to the program are based on budgeted estimates. Per 2 CFR 200.430(i)(1)(viii), this is not allowed without additional steps to ensure accuracy, allowability and proper allocation. Insufficient evidence was presented to support a reasonable reflection of employee federal and non-federal activity. EFN does not have a written policy nor system of internal controls to review and true-up grant wages to actual. Questioned costs: Known: $37,599 Likely: $302,557 Context: During testing, CLA identified instances of time and effort not being documented on time sheets for charged payroll costs for every selection. Cause: Management was not aware that estimated budgeted costs alone are not sufficient to support personnel costs charged to Federal awards, and previous auditors had never mentioned any issue with treatment. Effect: Charging grant wages based on estimates rather than actual hours worked on the program may raise compliance concerns. Estimating grant wages without adequate support for time and effort documentation may result in noncompliance with grant regulations. This can also lead to overcharging or undercharging the federal grant, which may result in penalties or repayment obligations. Repeat Finding: No. Recommendation: We recommend that EFN incorporate a system of internal controls that clearly documents the time and effort that each individual employee spends on each grant per month. This can be done by tracking and recording the actual hours each employee, regardless of position, spends working on each grant, on their time sheet or with a specific grant code, that specifies how many hours per day were spent on each federal and nonfederal activity. Alternatively, EFN can implement an after-the-fact review procedure to ensure the proper allocation of payroll expenditures to Federal and non-Federal awards, in accordance with 2 CFR 200.430. Views of responsible officials: There is no disagreement with the audit finding.