Finding 1131648 (2023-004)

Criteria: In accordance with 2 CFR 200 Subpart E, the University is required to conform to allowability of cost provisions, and 2 CFR 200.303 requires the organization to establish and maintain effective controls over federal awards. Allowable costs charged to federal programs, whether direct or indirect, must be allowable and be determined in accordance with Subpart E – Cost Principles of the Uniform Guidance. Effective internal controls should include procedures to ensure federal expenditures and amounts are for activities allowed or unallowed and allowable costs/cost principles, as well as accurately and completely reported on the SEFA. According to 2 CFR 200.430, charges to Federal awards for salaries and wages must be based on records that accurately reflect the work performed. These records must: (i) Be supported by a system of internal control that provides reasonable assurance that the charges are accurate, allowable, and properly allocated; (ii) Be incorporated into the official records of the recipient or subrecipient; (iii) Reasonably reflect the total activity for which the employee is compensated by the recipient or subrecipient, not exceeding 100 percent of compensated activities; (iv) Encompass federally-assisted and all other activities compensated by the recipient or subrecipient on an integrated basis but may include the use of subsidiary records as defined in the recipient's or subrecipient's written policy; (v) Comply with the established accounting policies and procedures of the recipient or subrecipient and (vi) 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 allocated using different allocation bases; or an unallowable activity and a direct or indirect cost activity. Condition and Context: The University receives Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) Cluster program funding at its Sacramento campus to perform nutrition outreach and education services to residents of the State of California. The Sacramento campus administers the SNAP Cluster nutrition education programs through its College of Continuing Education (CCE) and Population Research Center (PRC) offices. SNAP Cluster program expenditures are primarily comprised of payroll for program personnel performing various program activities and related fringe benefits and indirect costs. During our testing of 18 payroll expenditures for CCE employees (totaling $90,946) and 40 payroll expenditures for PRC employees (totaling $66,458), we noted effort reports detailing 100% of the employee's activities were not prepared for certain employees. Upon further investigation and discussion with CCE and PRC program management, we noted effort reports were not prepared for any employees whose payroll expenditures were charged to the SNAP Cluster program, except for student workers who solely worked on SNAP Cluster program activities. The payroll expenditures and related costs impacted by the inadequate effort reports, are described in the table below: Expenditure category Questioned costs Excerpt of total SNAP Cluster program expenditures by impacted expenditure category Payroll $1,151,941 $1,354,046 Fringe benefits $641,501 $641,501 Indirect costs $448,286 $660,709 Total $2,241,728 $2,656,257 Total SNAP Cluster program expenditures were $3,688,927 for the year ended June 30, 2023. We noted additional instances of noncompliance as follows: • In our testing of 58 payroll expenditures, the hourly payroll rates used to prepare the quarterly payroll remittances submitted to the State of California exceeded the actual payroll rates paid for 15 employees resulting in an overcharge of payroll, fringe benefits, and indirect costs to the SNAP program of $11,710, $9,684, and $5,348, respectively. As these 15 employees did not have effort reports as discussed above, payroll, fringe benefits, and indirect costs associated with these 15 employees has already been included in the table above. • One individually significant payroll expenditure that was associated with one employee was double counted in the quarterly State of California remittance billing resulting in an overcharge to the SNAP Cluster program of $27,004, $10,801, and $9,451, respectively. As the employee did not have an effort report as discussed above, payroll, fringe benefits, and indirect costs associated with this employee has already been included in the table above. • In our testing of 7 indirect cost charges, we identified 4 indirect cost charges that utilized higher than the allowed hourly rates within the calculation. These 4 indirect cost charges related to CCE employees in which the hourly rate listed in the program agreement was billed versus the employee’s actual hourly pay rate and fringe benefit costs. As a result, the total payroll charges used to bill the indirect cost rate of 25% utilized unallowable payroll expenditures, which resulted in the SNAP Cluster program being overcharged by $46,922. As these employees also did not have effort reports as discussed above, payroll, fringe benefits, and indirect costs associated with these CCE employees has already been included in the table above. In addition, we noted the Sacramento campus has not established adequate internal controls to ensure: (1) payroll expenditures charged to the SNAP Cluster program are properly determined and supported in accordance with the requirements of the Uniform Guidance and (2) fringe benefit and indirect costs are properly calculated by applying the approved fringe or indirect cost rate to a base that includes only allowable costs. Cause & Effect: The errors noted above were primarily due to insufficient controls over the establishment and tracking of SNAP Cluster program activities as federal funding within Sacramento’s general ledger. As a result, a portion of SNAP program expenditures and activities were not processed in accordance with applicable federal guidelines. Additional errors noted above relate to insufficient controls over the accuracy of the payroll, fringe benefits, and indirect cost charged to the SNAP Cluster program. The inadequate review procedures over payroll, fringe benefits, and indirect cost expenditures resulted in unallowable charges to the SNAP Cluster program in the amount of $2,241,728.