Finding 1163318 (2023-003)

Allowable Costs – Payroll, Fringe, and General Disbursements Federal Agency: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Federal Program Title: Child Care and Development Block Grant Operation of a Child Care Resource Center - Baltimore, Harford and Cecil Counties; Professional Development/Quality (688) Operation of a Child Care Resource Center - Baltimore, Harford and Cecil Counties; Infants and Toddlers (689) Specialized Training for Caregivers and Child Care Providers (707) Growing Opportunities in Family Child Care (GOFCC) Planning Period (684) Infant & Early Childhood Mental Health Support Services - Harford and Cecil Counties (668) Infant & Early Childhood Mental Health Support Services - Baltimore County (689) Operation of a Child Care Resource Center - Baltimore, Harford and Cecil Counties (691) Maryland Rebuilds Initiative Grant (708) Assistance Listing Number: 93.575 Award Periods: July 1, 2022 – December 31, 2023 (668, 669) March 1, 2022 – August 31, 2022 (684) July 1, 2022 – June 30, 2023 (688, 689, 691) August 15, 2022 – June 30, 2025 (707) December 1, 2022 – June 30, 2024 (708) Type of Finding: Material Weakness in Internal Control over Compliance and Material Non-Compliance Criteria: Recipients of federal funds are required to establish and maintain effective internal controls over federal funds received, per 2 CFR section 200.303. Allowable costs must be approved by the awarding agency (2 CFR section 200.407) and necessary and reasonable for the performance of the federal award and allocable under the principles of 2 CFR, Subpart E. Additionally, costs must be adequately documented. Condition: Direct costs incurred were allocated through journal entries to the grant without support of an allocation methodology. Management was unable to provide an understanding of how to trace the allocated amounts to a consistent methodology or to original source documentation. Additionally, credit card costs did not have proper evidence of approval maintained. Lastly, time and effort for one employee was not properly approved by a separate individual. Context: Of the general disbursement population, $268,163 of general disbursements were booked via unsupported journal entry (allocated). Of the payroll and fringe benefit disbursement population, $372,815 were booked via unsupported journal entry (allocated). Additionally, twenty out of twenty credit card transactions selected did not have evidence of approval. Lastly, one of the forty payroll transactions tested did not have proper approval by a separate individual. Questioned Costs: $640,978 Cause: Internal controls surrounding allocations were not properly designed and implemented and an audit trail for allocation journal entries/source documentation was not maintained. Effect: The lack of evidence for audit trail and lack of effective internal controls over allocations provides an opportunity for noncompliance and errors. Repeat Finding: Yes Recommendation: We recommend that the Organization design, implement and monitor internal controls over allocations as well as maintain source documentation to support amounts charged to the grant. Views of Responsible Officials of the Auditee: There is no disagreement with the audit finding.