Finding 1156976 (2024-001)

Material Weakness Repeat Finding
Requirement
B
Questioned Costs
-
Year
2024
Accepted
2025-09-30

AI Summary

  • Core Issue: The District incorrectly calculated payroll costs, leading to a significant deficiency in internal controls over compliance with federal cost principles.
  • Impacted Requirements: Costs charged to federal awards must be necessary, reasonable, and allocable, as outlined in the Uniform Guidance.
  • Recommended Follow-Up: Strengthen internal controls over expenditure review to ensure compliance with cost principles and prevent future errors.

Finding Text

Finding 2024-001 – Allowble Cost (Significant Deficiency in Internal Control Over Compliance) - (See chart on section III of audit findings page) Criteria – In accordance with the Uniform Guidance (2 CFR Part 200), Subpart E – Cost Principles, and the program’s grant agreement, costs charged to federal awards must be necessary, reasonable, and allocable to the federal program. Condition/Context – It was noted in the audit of payroll expenditures that the District used incorrect pay rates and duplicated certain miscellaneous pay codes. Total expenditures represented 5.5% of the expenditure population. While the payroll issues were originally identified in the sample selections, the actual impact for the entire payroll portion of the population was able to be calculated. Effect – Based on the corrected payroll calculation for the issues identified, the District’s allowable payroll expenditure population was approximately $8,400 higher than what was submitted for reimbursement on a net basis. Cause – While the methodology to calculate the payroll costs was appropriate for compliance purposes, due to the manual nature of the calculation, errors were not prevented, and the District’s compliance monitoring did not detect the issues. Repeat Finding – This is not a repeat finding. Recommendation – We recommend the District strengthen its internal controls over expenditure review to ensure all costs charged to federal programs comply with applicable cost principles. Views of Responsible Officials – The responsible officials acknowledge the finding and concur with the recommendation.

Corrective Action Plan

Management’s Corrective Action Plan Year Ending – December 31, 2024 Schedule of Findings and Questioned Costs: Section III – Federal Award Finding: 2024-001 – Allowable Cost ALN #97.036 Contact: Matthew Vaughn Title: Regional Director of Financial Planning & Analysis Completion Date: Present Corrective Action: January of 2022 saw a massive uptick in daily Covid-19 cases across the country. As a result of this crisis, the incident command (IC) structure established a labor pool that deployed volunteers into unfilled shifts at the hospital for a myriad of critical positions. These shifts were tracked and coordinated via the incident command structure on separate worksheets and as a result worked shifts were not coded directly on employee timecards as had been done previously over the course of the pandemic. All other payroll submissions of the county will refer to timecard-coded worked hours and expenses, which allow the user to generate standard payroll cost reports directly out of source financial systems rather than manually matching multiple data sources to calculate relevant costs

Categories

Allowable Costs / Cost Principles Subrecipient Monitoring Cash Management Significant Deficiency

Programs in Audit

ALN Program Name Expenditures
97.036 Covid-19 - Disaster Grants - Public Assistance (presidentially Declared Disasters) $1.76M
93.301 Small Rural Hospital Improvement Grant Program $12,890