FA 2025-001 Strengthen Controls over Employee Compensation Compliance Requirement: Allowable Costs/Cost Principles Internal Control Impact: Significant Deficiency Compliance Impact: Nonmaterial Noncompliance Federal Awarding Agency: U.S. Department of Education Pass-Through Entity: Georgia Department of Education AL Numbers and Titles: 84.027 – Special Education Grants to States 84.173 – Special Education Preschool Grants Federal Award Numbers: H027A230073 (Year: 2024), H027A240073 (Year: 2025), H173A240081 (Year: 2025) Questioned Costs: $1,283 Description: The policies and procedures of the School District were insufficient to provide adequate internal controls over the employee compensation process as it relates to the Special Education Cluster. Background: The Special Education Cluster (SEC), which is comprised of the Special Education Grants to States (IDEA, Part B) and Special Education Preschool Grants (IDEA Preschool) programs, was authorized under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Special Education Cluster funding is available to ensure that all children with disabilities have available to them a free appropriate public education that emphasizes special education and related services designed to meet their unique needs and prepares them for further education, employment, and independent living; ensure that the rights of children with disabilities and their parents are protected; assist states, localities, educational service agencies, and federal agencies to provide for the education of all children with disabilities; and assess and ensure the effectiveness of efforts to educate children with disabilities. SEC funding was granted to the Georgia Department of Education (GaDOE) by the U.S. Department of Education (ED). GaDOE is responsible for distributing funds to LEAs and overseeing the expenditure of funds by LEAs. SEC funds totaling $2,769,220.76 were expended and reported on the Lowndes County Board of Education’s Schedule of Expenditures of Federal Awards (SEFA) for fiscal year 2025. Criteria: As a recipient of federal awards, the School District is required to establish, document, and maintain effective internal control over federal awards that provides reasonable assurance of managing the federal awards in compliance with federal statutes, regulations, and the terms and conditions of the federal awards pursuant to Title 2 U.S. Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 200, Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards (Uniform Guidance), Section 200.303 – Internal Controls. Additionally, provisions included in the Uniform Guidance, Section 200.403 – Factors Affecting Allowability of Costs state that “costs must meet the following general criteria in order to be allowable under Federal awards: (a) Be necessary and reasonable for the performance of the Federal award and be allocable thereto under these principles, (b) Conform to any limitations or exclusions set forth in these principles or in the Federal award as to types or amount of cost items, (c) Be consistent with policies and procedures that apply uniformly to both federally financed and other activities of the recipient or subrecipient… (g) Be adequately documented…” Furthermore, provisions included in the Uniform Guidance, Section 200.430 – Compensation-Personal Services prescribe standards for documentation of personnel expenses and state, in part, that “(a) … Costs of compensation are allowable to the extent that they satisfy… specific requirements…, and that the total compensation for individual employees: (1) Is reasonable for the services rendered and conforms to the established written policy of the recipient or subrecipient consistently applied to both Federal and non-Federal activities; (2) Follows an appointment made in accordance with recipient’s or subrecipient’s laws, rules, or written policies and meets the requirements of Federal statute, where applicable; and (3) Is determined and supported as provided in paragraph (g)…, [as follows:] (g) Charges to Federal awards for salaries and wages must be based on records that accurately reflect the work performed. These records must: (i) Be supported by a system of internal control that provides reasonable assurance that the charges are accurate, allowable, and properly allocated; (ii) Be incorporated into the official records of the recipient or subrecipient…” Condition: A sample of 16 employees was randomly selected for testing using a non-statistical sampling approach. These employees were reviewed to determine if internal controls were properly functioning, and applicable compliance requirements were met. The following deficiencies were noted: • For two employees, the amount paid did not agree to supporting documentation and resulted in underpayments totaling $4,378. • For one employee, the amount paid did not agree to board-approved salary scales and resulted in the overpayment of salary and benefit amounts by a total of $1,283. Questioned Costs: Upon testing a sample of $195,182 in personnel services expenditures, known questioned costs of $1,283 were identified for payroll charges exceeding documented federal program activities, including $743 in salaries and $540 in associated benefits. Using the total personnel services expenditure population of $1,806,992 (excluding benefits payments), we project the likely questioned costs to be approximately $6,882. Cause: The identified variances resulted from isolated payroll processing errors during position changes and pay scale updates for specific positions resulting in data-entry and reconciliation discrepancies. Effect: The School District is not in compliance with the Uniform Guidance and GaDOE guidance. Failure to pay employees associated with Special Education Cluster the appropriate amount and/or maintain documentation supporting these payments could result in the expenditure of funds for unallowable purposes. This may also expose the School District to unnecessary financial strains and shortages within the Special Education Cluster fund as ED or GaDOE may require the School District to return funds associated with unallowable or improperly documented expenditures. Recommendation: The School District should evaluate their internal control processes related to the documentation and review of employee compensation payments. Where vulnerable, the School District should develop and/or modify its policies and procedures to ensure that Special Education Cluster employees are paid appropriately. Furthermore, management should develop and implement a monitoring process to ensure that these procedures are functioning properly. Views of Responsible Officials: We concur with this finding.