Finding Text
CONDITION: The School District did not obtain proper documentation of time and effort to support payroll expenditures charged to the IDEA programs on a timely basis for the year ended June 30, 2024. CRITERIA: The Uniform Guidance requires documentation of time and effort as support for payroll expenditures charged to federal programs. This documentation can be in the form of semiannual certifications for those employees charged 100% to a federal program or the documentation must show a daily breakdown of the employee's time if the employee is allocated between programs. CONTEXT, CAUSE, AND EFFECT: The District did not obtain the documentation of time and effort on a timely basis for three employees whose payroll costs were charged to the IDEA program as a result of management oversight. One of the three employees did not qualify to be charged to the IDEA program, resulting in known questioned costs of $37,000. The District’s auditors tested approximately $211,000 in key items related to the IDEA program and noted no exceptions. The District’s auditors tested a random sample of 25 other IDEA payroll expenditures and noted one employee totaling approximately $37,000 that were improperly charged to the IDEA program. This known questioned costs extrapolated to the remaining population resulted in estimated questioned costs of approximately $179,000. RECOMMENDATION: We recommend that the School District prepare/obtain sufficient documentation of time and effort for all employees paid using federal funds, as required by the Uniform Guidance, in order to ensure that only eligible payroll expenditures are charged to the program. RESPONSE: The School District agrees with this finding and will ensure sufficient documentation of time and effort is obtained in the future.