Finding 1172529 (2025-001)

Environmental Monitoring/Cleanup, Cultural and Resource Management, Emergency Response Research, Outreach, Technical Analysis; Federal Assistance Listing No. 81.214; U.S. Department of Energy; Award No. DE-EM0004146 and DE-EM0005320; budget periods April 1, 2016 through August 30, 2024, and September 1, 2024 through August 31, 2029, respectively Criteria or specific requirement: Activities allowed and unallowed and Allowable costs/cost principles – 2 CFR, Part 200, Subpart E notes that costs should not include duplicate expenditures. Condition: We noted the expenditures of the program included a duplicate accrual posting. Cause: The University did not properly review invoices to ensure that amounts were not already accrued to the grant. Effect or potential effect: Expenditure was incorrectly accrued to the grant twice. Questioned costs: $33,720, calculated per vendor invoice Context: From a total of 98 direct costs for the period, 25 direct costs were selected for testing. This sample was not, and was not intended to be, a statistically valid sample. The University’s management followed their controls for year-end accruals; however, one accrual was recorded when the invoice was originally received. The invoice was returned to the vendor and the second accrual was recorded when the vendor resubmitted the invoice but the invoice was not flagged as a resubmission. Identification as a repeat finding, if applicable: Not a repeat finding. Recommendation: All personnel involved in reviewing and approving invoices should actively monitor the manual and automatic accruals of invoices to avoid duplication. Views of responsible officials and planned corrective actions: The University agrees with the finding. See separate report for planned corrective action.