Auditor's Recommendation: Strengthen policies and procedures to ensure proper authorization and documentation of payroll changes.
Management Response: While ODI does not disagree with the audit finding, the Agency does clarify the context of the finding. ODI has a policy for setting, processing, an...
Auditor's Recommendation: Strengthen policies and procedures to ensure proper authorization and documentation of payroll changes.
Management Response: While ODI does not disagree with the audit finding, the Agency does clarify the context of the finding. ODI has a policy for setting, processing, and approving staff wage rates as follows: Sr. HR Manager or Payroll Assistant process new hires and sets them up in the timekeeping system (NOVAtime). Any salary changes are also processed by DHR (may also be processed by supervisor) on a change status form and approved by CEO. The auditors performed tests to determine if the CEO approved the change status form. As mentioned in the audit finding, of the audit sample of employees tested in the 16 pay periods from more than 250 pay periods, six employees did not have their change of status forms signed by the CEO. Audit requirements for federal awards require the auditors to assign a value to specific instances of noncompliance as “known questioned costs”. The known questioned costs for this finding are $14,112 and are comprised of the transactions the auditors tested for allocated wages of the six employees to specific grants. The auditors further calculate “likely questioned costs” by extrapolating the auditor’s sample across the entire population from which the sample is drawn and is $553,607. Is it important to note that the “known questioned costs” and the “likely questioned costs” are not calculations of errors or misstatement in the financial statements. All six employees' pay rates were processed correctly despite missing CEO signatures on the change status forms.
Corrective Action:
-Conduct comprehensive internal audit of all current staff to verify proper processing and CEO approval of change status forms
-Implement dual-filing system: approved forms will be maintained in both personnel folders and financial accounting folders to verify that approved pay rates are used when charging labor costs to any grant.
Responsible Personnel: Karen Dickson, Sr. Finance Director; Lisa Tucker, Sr. HR Manager
Implementation Date: Immediate implementation