Finding 1167727 (2025-002)

Material Weakness Repeat Finding
Requirement
B
Questioned Costs
-
Year
2025
Accepted
2026-01-05
Audit: 378969
Organization: The Road Home (UT)
Auditor: EIDE BAILLY LLP

AI Summary

  • Core Issue: There was a significant deficiency in internal controls, leading to unsupported billing for the SSVF grant.
  • Impacted Requirements: The Organization failed to document and reverse monthly payroll accruals, resulting in a total questioned cost of $28,634.
  • Recommended Follow-Up: Implement a system to ensure monthly payroll amounts are accurately billed and not duplicated.

Finding Text

U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs Federal Financial Assistance Listing #64.033 Award 15-UT-336 Supportive Services for Veteran Families Allowable Costs Significant Deficiency in Internal Control Over Compliance Criteria: The Organization should have procedures in place to ensure that items billed to the grant are supported by proper documentation. Condition: During the course of our engagement, it was noted that one of the 45 selected transactions was unsupported. The Road Home had implemented a process to accrue payroll within the billing period of the grant for payroll related to the SSVF grant, and that for a portion of the year, the accrued payroll was not reversed out, causing an over-billing of the portion of payroll related to these accruals. Cause: Lack of sufficient controls to ensure monthly reversals of month-end accruals. Effect: Billed payroll transactions related to the SSVF grant are misstated in the Organization’s Schedule of Federal Expenditures. Questioned Costs: $28,634. Note that the transaction selected for testing that was determined to be unsupported totaled $102.08. After discovering this error, we reviewed all effected costs for the period of error and concluded that the total error in the program was $28,634. Context: It was noted that the error was restricted to the monthly accruals. As such, we were able to identify explicitly which transactions were not reversed out and were subsequently billed to the grant. As such, no additional selections were made as the detail revealed $28,634 of transactions that were duplicate billed. Repeat Finding from Prior Year(s): No Recommendation: We recommend that the Organization implements a system to ensure monthly payroll amounts are not duplicate billed to the grantor. Views of Responsible Officials: Management agrees with the finding.

Corrective Action Plan

Management agrees with the finding. The weakness occurred due to the implementation of a change in the accrual process not initially being fully documented as an additional task in the billing workflow. Our corrective action plan is as follows: • Rectify the financial impact of the identified duplicated cost (which is isolated to a single billing period) via a billing adjustment to ensure the net reimbursement of program expenses by the relevant funder is accurate. • Document the rationale for the payroll accrual and its subsequent reversal, and the individual steps required at each stage of the billing and review processes. The CFO, Controller and Grant Billing Manager are responsible for implementing this action plan which will be complete by end of December 2025. In the interim, the payroll accrual and reversal process is being subject to particular and focused review during the monthly billing process to ensure compliance while we implement the long-term plan.

Categories

Allowable Costs / Cost Principles Significant Deficiency Internal Control / Segregation of Duties

Programs in Audit

ALN Program Name Expenditures
64.033 VA SUPPORTIVE SERVICES FOR VETERAN FAMILIES PROGRAM $2.51M
93.558 TEMPORARY ASSISTANCE FOR NEEDY FAMILIES $779,976
97.024 EMERGENCY FOOD AND SHELTER NATIONAL BOARD PROGRAM $150,303
14.218 COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT BLOCK GRANTS/ENTITLEMENT GRANTS $73,750
16.710 PUBLIC SAFETY PARTNERSHIP AND COMMUNITY POLICING GRANTS $52,861
14.231 EMERGENCY SOLUTIONS GRANT PROGRAM $32,687
14.239 HOME INVESTMENT PARTNERSHIPS PROGRAM $32,674
14.267 CONTINUUM OF CARE PROGRAM $20,845
20.513 ENHANCED MOBILITY OF SENIORS AND INDIVIDUALS WITH DISABILITIES $12,000