Finding 2022-001 Internal Control Over Payroll Type of Finding: Material Weakness in Internal Control over Compliance Condition and Context: An effective internal control system was not in place at the Organization to ensure that employee work hours charged to federal contracts were properly recorded, tracked, approved, and accurate prior to submitting reimbursement claims. Payroll claims without appropriate documentation or supervision totaled $177,512 during the reporting period. Criteria: Management is responsible for establishing internal controls to properly record, track, and approve personnel work efforts on federal contracts to determine that the work claimed is accurate with the work performed. Cause: The Organization had not established an effective system of internal controls that would have ensured proper tracking and approving of work efforts that could distinguish between funding sources and contracts. Effect: The failure to establish an internal control system could enable noncompliance to go undetected. Noncompliance with the grant agreement leading to charging payroll costs to the wrong contract could have resulted in the loss of federal funds to the Organization. Questioned Costs: Known questioned costs of $177,512 were identified, as detailed in the Condition and Context above. Recommendation: We recommended that the Organization's management establish and implement a system of internal controls and maintain adequate supporting documentation to ensure the work efforts for all personnel working on federal contracts are accurate and properly supervised. Views of Responsible Officials: Management agrees with the recommendation and has implemented the following steps. The employees charged to the federal contracts are salaried employees and do not prepare time sheets in the normal course of business. However, the Organization utilizes a time reporting worksheet template provided by the grantor to report employee work hours. This worksheet includes employee name, date, and hours worked per federal contract. The Organization has added the step of including written approval by the employee and the employee?s supervisor on the aforementioned time reporting worksheet to confirm the accuracy of the information submitted.
Finding 2022-002 Internal Control Over Procurement and Debarment Type of Finding: Material Weakness in Internal Control over Compliance Condition and Context: An effective internal control system was not in place at the Organization to ensure compliance with requirements related to reviewing the debarment and suspension status of subcontractors before issuing payments of federal funds. Criteria: Management is responsible for establishing internal controls to prevent subcontracting with any party which is debarred, suspended, otherwise excluded from, or ineligible for participation in Federal assistance programs by any Federal department or agency. Cause: The Organization had not established an effective system of internal controls that would have ensured compliance with the grant agreement and the requirement to review federal debarment or suspended status for all subcontractors. Effect: The failure to establish an internal control system could enable noncompliance to go undetected. Noncompliance with the grant agreement leading to payments made to debarred entities could have resulted in the loss of federal funds to the Organization. Questioned Costs: There were no questioned costs identified. Recommendation: We recommended that the Organization's management establish and implement a system of internal controls and maintain adequate supporting documentation to ensure all subcontractors are reviewed for federal debarment and suspension status before receiving federal funds. Views of Responsible Officials: Management agrees with the recommendation and has implemented the following steps. The Organization has implemented a checklist of requirements for each federal contract that includes the review of all new vendors for suspension or debarment on Sam.gov.
Finding 2022-003 Close-out Reporting Type of Finding: Material Weakness in reporting Condition and Context: An effective internal control system was not in place at the Organization to ensure compliance with requirements related to the grant agreement and post-award requirements for closeout and the reporting compliance requirement. Criteria: The grant recipient agrees that the final report shall be submitted no later than 60 days following the end of the award period. Failure to provide this report may result in the deobligation of grant funds and the project to be closed at the discretion of the government. Cause: The Organization had not established an effective system of internal controls that would have ensured compliance with the grant agreement and the reporting compliance requirement. Effect: The failure to establish an internal control system enabled noncompliance to go undetected. Noncompliance with the grant agreement and the reporting compliance requirement could have resulted in the loss of federal funds to the Organization. Questioned Costs: There were no questioned costs identified. Recommendation: We recommended that the Organization's management establish a system of internal controls and maintain adequate supporting documentation to ensure compliance with the grant agreement and the reporting compliance requirement. Views of Responsible Officials: Management agrees with the recommendation and has implemented the following steps. General status updates of all federal contracts have been submitted to and accepted by the grantor on a regular basis. However, the Organization overlooked the specific reporting requirements of the federal contract that was completed during the year under audit. To address this issue, the Organization has implemented a checklist of requirements for each federal contract that includes documenting all reporting requirements under the contract and with a step that includes calendaring the reports to ensure deadlines are not missed.
Finding 2022-001 Internal Control Over Payroll Type of Finding: Material Weakness in Internal Control over Compliance Condition and Context: An effective internal control system was not in place at the Organization to ensure that employee work hours charged to federal contracts were properly recorded, tracked, approved, and accurate prior to submitting reimbursement claims. Payroll claims without appropriate documentation or supervision totaled $177,512 during the reporting period. Criteria: Management is responsible for establishing internal controls to properly record, track, and approve personnel work efforts on federal contracts to determine that the work claimed is accurate with the work performed. Cause: The Organization had not established an effective system of internal controls that would have ensured proper tracking and approving of work efforts that could distinguish between funding sources and contracts. Effect: The failure to establish an internal control system could enable noncompliance to go undetected. Noncompliance with the grant agreement leading to charging payroll costs to the wrong contract could have resulted in the loss of federal funds to the Organization. Questioned Costs: Known questioned costs of $177,512 were identified, as detailed in the Condition and Context above. Recommendation: We recommended that the Organization's management establish and implement a system of internal controls and maintain adequate supporting documentation to ensure the work efforts for all personnel working on federal contracts are accurate and properly supervised. Views of Responsible Officials: Management agrees with the recommendation and has implemented the following steps. The employees charged to the federal contracts are salaried employees and do not prepare time sheets in the normal course of business. However, the Organization utilizes a time reporting worksheet template provided by the grantor to report employee work hours. This worksheet includes employee name, date, and hours worked per federal contract. The Organization has added the step of including written approval by the employee and the employee?s supervisor on the aforementioned time reporting worksheet to confirm the accuracy of the information submitted.
Finding 2022-002 Internal Control Over Procurement and Debarment Type of Finding: Material Weakness in Internal Control over Compliance Condition and Context: An effective internal control system was not in place at the Organization to ensure compliance with requirements related to reviewing the debarment and suspension status of subcontractors before issuing payments of federal funds. Criteria: Management is responsible for establishing internal controls to prevent subcontracting with any party which is debarred, suspended, otherwise excluded from, or ineligible for participation in Federal assistance programs by any Federal department or agency. Cause: The Organization had not established an effective system of internal controls that would have ensured compliance with the grant agreement and the requirement to review federal debarment or suspended status for all subcontractors. Effect: The failure to establish an internal control system could enable noncompliance to go undetected. Noncompliance with the grant agreement leading to payments made to debarred entities could have resulted in the loss of federal funds to the Organization. Questioned Costs: There were no questioned costs identified. Recommendation: We recommended that the Organization's management establish and implement a system of internal controls and maintain adequate supporting documentation to ensure all subcontractors are reviewed for federal debarment and suspension status before receiving federal funds. Views of Responsible Officials: Management agrees with the recommendation and has implemented the following steps. The Organization has implemented a checklist of requirements for each federal contract that includes the review of all new vendors for suspension or debarment on Sam.gov.
Finding 2022-003 Close-out Reporting Type of Finding: Material Weakness in reporting Condition and Context: An effective internal control system was not in place at the Organization to ensure compliance with requirements related to the grant agreement and post-award requirements for closeout and the reporting compliance requirement. Criteria: The grant recipient agrees that the final report shall be submitted no later than 60 days following the end of the award period. Failure to provide this report may result in the deobligation of grant funds and the project to be closed at the discretion of the government. Cause: The Organization had not established an effective system of internal controls that would have ensured compliance with the grant agreement and the reporting compliance requirement. Effect: The failure to establish an internal control system enabled noncompliance to go undetected. Noncompliance with the grant agreement and the reporting compliance requirement could have resulted in the loss of federal funds to the Organization. Questioned Costs: There were no questioned costs identified. Recommendation: We recommended that the Organization's management establish a system of internal controls and maintain adequate supporting documentation to ensure compliance with the grant agreement and the reporting compliance requirement. Views of Responsible Officials: Management agrees with the recommendation and has implemented the following steps. General status updates of all federal contracts have been submitted to and accepted by the grantor on a regular basis. However, the Organization overlooked the specific reporting requirements of the federal contract that was completed during the year under audit. To address this issue, the Organization has implemented a checklist of requirements for each federal contract that includes documenting all reporting requirements under the contract and with a step that includes calendaring the reports to ensure deadlines are not missed.