Views of Responsible Officials and Planned Corrective Action: While QARI concurs with the need to strengthen timekeeping documentation practices, we respectfully note that the matter identified reflects procedural and documentation deficiencies, not misuse or misallocation of grant funds. Through an internal review conducted in response to this finding, management confirmed that the personnel in question were performing allowable and allocable grant-related activities, supported by calendar records and project deliverables. Due to gaps in timekeeping procedures, approved timesheets did not fully capture all grant-related effort. Management recorded journal entries to align payroll charges with actual programmatic work performed, based on supervisory knowledge of staff assignments and workload. These entries were intended to ensure costs were properly aligned with grant activities, not to overcharge the grant. The underlying causes of this issue include: 1) Inconsistent understanding of federal documentation requirements from staff; 2) Insufficient secondary review procedures to identify and/or correct errors at the time of submission; 3) Functional limitations of our time tracking system that did not fully support multi-grant allocations. QARI maintains that the costs charged were reasonable, allowable, and incurred in support of the grant’s objectives. Corrective actions already implemented or in progress include: 1) Organization-wide training on federal timekeeping and effort reporting requirements; 2)Enhanced supervisory review and approval protocols to ensure accuracy and completeness prior to payroll processing; 3) Strengthened internal controls and updated procedures to ensure that only hours supported by compliant timesheets are charged directly to grants. QARI is committed to full compliance with federal documentation standards and has taken proactive steps to ensure that all payroll charges are fully supported, verifiable, and consistent with best practices.