Finding 1220817 (2025-002)

Material Weakness Repeat Finding
Requirement
B
Questioned Costs
-
Year
2025
Accepted
2026-06-29
Audit: 405540
Organization: City of Costa Mesa (CA)

AI Summary

  • Core Issue: The City’s payroll system inaccurately allocates vacation hours, leading to unsupported payroll costs charged to the program.
  • Impacted Requirements: This finding violates 2 CFR 200.430(g), which mandates accurate documentation of personnel expenses for federal awards.
  • Recommended Follow-Up: Implement a reconciliation process for vacation hours to ensure payroll charges align with actual employee timesheets.

Finding Text

Federal Agency: U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Federal Program Name: HOME Investment Partnership Program Assistance Listing Number: 14.239 Award Period: July 1, 2024 through June 30, 2025 Type of Finding: Significant Deficiency in Internal Control over Compliance Criteria or Specific Requirement: 2 CFR 200.430(g), Standards for Documentation of Personnel Expenses, states: (1) Charges to Federal awards for salaries and wages must be based on records that accurately reflect the work performed. These records must: (vi) Support the distribution of the employee's salary or wages among specific activities or cost objectives if the employee works on more than one Federal award. Condition: The City’s payroll system allocated vacation hours across various programs and needed further reconciliation to identify eligible costs per employee timesheets. Questioned Costs: None. Context: All vacation hours not directly identified in the employees timesheet are charged based on payroll systems preset allocations. Cause: When the employees are on vacation and time is not directly identified in the employees timesheet, the payroll system defaults to a preset allocation. Effect: Payroll costs charged to the program were greater than amounts supported by the documentation.

Corrective Action Plan

The City is currently implementing measures to ensure the actual hours worked is correctly coded.

Categories

Allowable Costs / Cost Principles Significant Deficiency

Other Findings in this Audit

  • 1220816 2025-002
    Material Weakness Repeat

Programs in Audit

ALN Program Name Expenditures
21.027 CORONAVIRUS STATE AND LOCAL FISCAL RECOVERY FUNDS $1.21M
20.205 HIGHWAY PLANNING AND CONSTRUCTION $696,284
97.036 DISASTER GRANTS - PUBLIC ASSISTANCE (PRESIDENTIALLY DECLARED DISASTERS) $326,713
20.608 MINIMUM PENALTIES FOR REPEAT OFFENDERS FOR DRIVING WHILE INTOXICATED $211,730
20.600 STATE AND COMMUNITY HIGHWAY SAFETY $111,429
14.218 COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT BLOCK GRANTS/ENTITLEMENT GRANTS $23,969
14.239 HOME INVESTMENT PARTNERSHIPS PROGRAM $9,377
97.042 EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT PERFORMANCE GRANTS $8,916