Finding Text
Finding 2023-001: Allowable costs – significant deficiency in internal controls over compliance and compliance finding.
Community Services Block Grant ALN 93.569
Emergency Rental Assistance Program ALN 21.023
Criteria: The Council’s internal control procedures over compliance specify that all employees timesheets and hours agree to the payroll register and amount allocated to grant activities.
Condition: During allowable cost testing for federal grants, for 8 of the 65 payroll transactions tested, the amount charged to the grant did not agree to the employee's timesheet.
Cause: Prior to May 2023, percentage labor distributions were based on grant budgeted allocations in our payroll system for those employees working out of multiple service categories. Additionally, service category descriptions in the payroll system did not match 100% with the general ledger service category descriptions.
Effect: The Council's reporting of grant time and effort was not fully documented, in accordance with internal control over compliance procedures. The cumulative effect of the exceptions noted during tested resulted in the grants being undercharged by the Council. Per Management's Corrective Action plan, this finding was fully resolved as of April 2024.
Questioned Costs: None
Recommendation: Management should ensure amount charged to the grants agree to timesheets and payroll registers before the request for reimbursement is submitted.
Management’s Response: The corrective action plan detailed on page 31 was fully implemented as of April 2024.