Finding 1203024 (2025-002)

Material Weakness Repeat Finding
Requirement
AB
Questioned Costs
-
Year
2025
Accepted
2026-03-30
Audit: 396275
Organization: Clayton Child Care, Inc. (TX)

AI Summary

  • Core Issue: There is a significant deficiency in internal controls over compliance regarding payroll approvals for the grant.
  • Impacted Requirements: The organization failed to retain documentation for payroll approvals, violating federal regulations requiring robust internal controls and documentation retention for three years.
  • Recommended Follow-Up: Update policies to mandate retention of all key control documentation for at least three years to ensure compliance.

Finding Text

Finding 2025‐002: Allowable costs and activities‐significant deficiency in internal controls over compliance. Twenty‐First Century Community Learning Centers Grant ALN 84.287C Criteria: Clayton Child Care, Inc.’s (Organization) internal control procedures over compliance specify that the Director of Finance approves payroll prior to payment. Section 200 of the Code of Federal Regulations requires recipients to implement robust internal controls to reduce the risk of noncompliance with cost principles for all activities allocated to the grant and to retain supporting documentation of control completion for three years from the date of submission of the expenditure request. Condition: During allowable activities for the Twenty‐First Century Community Learning Centers Grant, for 4 out of 26 payroll samples tested, the payroll was approved verbally and no documentation supporting the approval was retained. Cause: Internal control documentation was not being appropriately retained. Effect: Key internal control documentation was not properly retained and readily available to support the testing of key controls over the payroll process. Questioned Costs: None. Recommendation: In order to comply with the Code of Federal Regulations, we recommend the Organization’s policies be updated to require document retention for at least three years for all key control documentation. Management’s Response: See corrective action plan.

Corrective Action Plan

Finding Number: 2025-002 Planned Corrective Action: During testing of payroll transactions, the auditor identified that one or more payroll submissions lacked documented email approval from the Director of Finance prior to submission, as required by internal control policy. Although approval was verbally or electronically obtained, documentation was not consistently retained in accordance with policy. The organization has strengthened documentation procedures moving forward. The lack of documented approval occurred due to:  Inconsistent retention of email approvals, and/or  Staff misunderstanding of documentation requirements, and/or o Accounting team faced significant turnover with personnel completing payroll tasks  Payroll deadlines not being met, consistently, by organization’s management team The organization has implemented the following corrective actions:  Re-trained payroll and finance staff on the requirement that all payroll submissions must receive documented email approval from the Director of Finance prior to processing.  Implemented a standardized payroll submission checklist requiring confirmation of email approval before processing.  Established a centralized electronic folder where all payroll approval emails must be saved and retained.  Required organization’s management team to adhere to payroll deadlines set by Accounting Team or disciplinary actions will be taken.  The Senior Accountant will perform quarterly internal spot checks of payroll files to verify documentation is complete.  The Director of Finance will review and sign off monthly on a payroll approval log confirming compliance.  Failure to obtain documented approval will result in payroll submission delay until documentation is secured. Anticipated Completion Date: 08/31/2026 Responsible Contact Person: Dr. Brittany Lee

Categories

Allowable Costs / Cost Principles Significant Deficiency

Other Findings in this Audit

  • 1203023 2025-002
    Material Weakness Repeat

Programs in Audit

ALN Program Name Expenditures
84.287 TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY COMMUNITY LEARNING CENTERS $1.66M