Finding Text
Department of Health and Human Services Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, Passed through Ramsey County, Federal Financial Assistance Listing 93.558, MFIP award 2201MNTANF for the year ending 12/31/2025 Activities Allowed or Unallowed and Allowable Costs/Cost Principles Significant Deficiency in Internal Control over Compliance Criteria: CFR 200.303(a) establishes that the auditee must establish and maintain effective internal control over the federal award that provides assurance that the entity is managing the federal award in compliance with federal statutes, regulations, and the terms and conditions of the federal award. Goodwill-Easter Seals Minnesota’s internal control structure should be designed to properly follow the allocation policy for employees’ pay to each grant in accordance with the policy established by Goodwill-Easter Seals Minnesota. Condition: Goodwill-Easter Seals Minnesota has an internal control system designed to detect or prevent improper allocation of employees’ pay to grants in a timely manner in accordance with their established policy, however, during the year for five pay periods tested, Goodwill-Easter Seals Minnesota failed to identify that one employee’s timecard had incorrectly allocated time to a grant that ended. However, the time was corrected before submission to the grant, but it was not changed on the timecard. Cause: Goodwill-Easter Seals Minnesota has a process for approving timecards which include program codes for allocation to awards. The controls in place did not operate as designed and failed to fully correct an error in five timecards of an employee’s pay to the grant. Effect: One employee had the incorrect program code listed on the approved timecard for five pay periods tested. Questioned Costs: None reported. Context/Sampling: A nonstatistical sample of eight pay periods out of 26 were selected for testing which accounted for $383,866 of $2,284,613 of federal program expenditures. Repeat Finding from Prior Year: Yes Recommendation: We recommend that management develop a more extensive review over timecards to ensure pay is properly allocated to each grant in accordance with the policy established by Goodwill-Easter Seals Minnesota. Views of Responsible Officials: Management agrees with this finding.