Finding Text
Criteria: Under Uniform Guidance, costs charged to federal awards must be incurred within the award's period of performance and supported by documentation evidencing the date(s) incurred. For Single Audits, Requirement H - Period of Performance applies to ALN 97.036 and is addressed in the OMB Compliance Supplement (Part 3) and the agency's program guidance in Part 4. Condition: For 1 of 25 expenditure items tested during the first two weeks of the period, the auditee could not provide a timecard or system time entry for a daily time charge for one employee to evidence the date the cost was incurred. As a result, we could not determine whether the cost was incurred within the program's period of performance. Cause: Controls over timekeeping documentation retention and retrieval did not ensure that supporting records for all days charged to the program were available for audit. Effect: The auditee could not substantiate that the payroll cost for one employee for 1/6/2023 was incurred within the period of performance, resulting in noncompliance with Requirement H and an unsupported cost for that day. This also gives rise to an internal control deficiency over compliance. Context: Population: $1,818,122 total expenditures Sample tested: $67,720 (25 items) Exceptions: 1 Sample was not statistically valid Known Questioned Costs: $554.18 (22 hours × $25.19/hour) for the unsupported 1/6/2023 payroll charge. Recommendation: Implement and document a timekeeping record‑retention control that: Reconciles payroll charges to system time entries for each day prior to reimbursement; Flags missing daily time records for corrective action before costs are submitted; and Requires a secondary review to verify documentation supports the period of performance for each charge. Views of Responsible Officials: Management agrees with the finding.