Audit 408259

Criteria or Specific Requirement: The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Cost Principles and Uniform Guidance requires recipients of federal awards to maintain effective internal controls over federal programs. As part of these controls, the Organization's payroll policies require supervisory review and approval of employee timecards to support the accuracy and authorization of payroll expenditures charged to federal awards. Condition: During testing of payroll transactions charged to federal awards, three employee timecards were identified that did not contain evidence of supervisory review and approval in accordance with the Organization's established policies and procedures. Questioned Costs: No costs were questioned. Context: The exceptions identified were limited to three timecards selected for testing. While no evidence was identified indicating that the hours reported or payroll costs recorded were inaccurate, the absence of documented supervisory approval indicates that the control designed to review and validate employee time records was not consistently performed. Cause: Established procedures requiring supervisory review and approval of employee timecards were not consistently followed. Recommendation: Management should strengthen monitoring procedures to ensure all employee timecards are reviewed and approved by the designated supervisor prior to payroll processing and retention within the payroll records. Views of Responsible Officials and Planned Corrective Action: Management concurs with the finding.