Finding Text
Type of Finding: Material Weakness in Internal Control over Compliance Criteria: The Organization must comply with the cost standards set out at the OPM Cost Accounting Standards. Specifically, payroll costs charged to a grant must have sufficient documentation to support the employee position and rate of pay and must also be supported by sufficient time and effort documentation. Time and effort can be accomplished through utilization of time sheets or personal activity report but must be completed at least monthly and must be signed by both the employee and supervisor. Condition: A sample of 40 employees was selected for testing. During the testing, we identified 2 employees where the employee time record was different than the amount charged to the grant. Questioned Costs: Unknown Context: The time charged to the grant did not agree to the supporting employee documentation. Cause: The Organization’s payroll reporting system was unable to properly allocate the time worked for those individual periods due to system limitations and there was no process in place to adjust the payroll to actual in these instances. Effect: The effect is that payroll costs charged to the grant could potentially be incorrectly stated and/or misallocated as of year-end. Repeat Finding: No.Recommendation: We recommend management enhance internal policies and procedures to ensure the actual time worked is properly charged to grants. Views of Responsible Officials: Management concurs with the finding. Refer to the separate corrective action plan.