Finding Text
2023-002. Allowable Costs/Cost Principles
United States Department of Justice, Passed through New York State, Office of Victims Services
Crime Victim Assistance ALN: 16.575
United States Department of Housing and Urban Development
Continuum of Care Program ALN: 14.267
Criteria: Uniform Guidance 2 CFR 200.430, covers standards for documentation of compensationpersonal
services. Charges to federal awards for salaries and wages must be based on records that
accurately reflect the work performed and time spent. These records must be supported by a system
of internal control which provides reasonable assurance that the charges are accurate, allowable, and
properly allocated. Furthermore, these records should support the distribution of the employee’s salary or wages among specific activities or cost objectives if the employee works on more than one
federal award; a federal award and non-federal award; an indirect cost activity and a direct cost
activity; two or more indirect activities, which are allocated using different allocation bases; or an
unallowable activity and a direct or indirect cost activity.
Condition: The Organization charged costs for staff time without source documentation that complied
with Uniform Guidance.
Cause: The Organization used time records which did not clearly differentiate between the activities
conducted and the hours worked to support compensation supported by each federal award and nonfederal
awards.
Potential Effect: Reimbursement for compensation under federal awards without time records, such as
personnel activity equivalent reports, might result in the incorrect payment amount of payroll
expenses.
Questioned Costs: None reported.
Identification of a Repeat Finding: This is a repeat finding related to the 2021 audit, finding #2021-002,
related to the Crime Victim Assistance grant.
Recommendation: The Organization should maintain Personnel Activity Reports (PAR) or equivalent
documentation. This reporting of time will allow each employee to accurately reflect the time work is
performed, for compensation which is funded by a federal award.
Views of Responsible Officials of Auditee: The Organization agrees with the finding and will modify
procedures to reflect actual time worked by employee on PAR equivalent documentation, which will
serve as support for personnel expenses funded by a federal award.