Finding Text
2025-005: Payroll Costs Federal Agency: U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Federal Program Title: Section 8 Choice Housing Vouchers Assistance Listing Number: 14.871 Federal Award Identification Number and Year: CA103VO, CA103AF, CA103 AFR; 2024 and 2025 Award Period: July 1, 2024 – June 30, 2025 Compliance Requirement Affected: AB Activities Allowed /Allowable Costs Type of Finding: Significant Deficiency in Internal Control over Compliance and Other Matter Criteria or Specific Requirement: 2 CFR § 200.430: 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 which provides reasonable assurance that the charges are accurate, allowable, and properly allocated. Condition: The City did not maintain supporting time and effort documentation for a certain employee who partially charged their time to the program. The City used a budgeted payroll allocation to charge employee amounts to the program and did not true-up the budgeted payroll allocation to actual time and effort. Questioned Costs: Costs not supported by time and effort documentation totaled $26,350 for the year. Context: 3 of the 19 payroll transactions tested were not supported by time and effort documentation. Total payroll costs charged to this grant program for the year were $504,435. Cause: City used budgeted percentages to determine the allocation of payroll costs for certain employees who provided services to the grant on a part-time basis. The City did not true-up the budgeted amounts to actuals as part of their year-end closing process. Effect: Unsupported payroll charges for time and effort pertaining to grant programs may be disallowed by the grantor. Repeat Finding: Yes; 2024-008 Recommendation: We recommend that the City review and update internal controls to ensure that supporting documentation for allowable time charges to grant programs is properly maintained. Views of Responsible Officials and Corrective Action: Management agrees with this finding. This finding recurrence is due to the timing of the prior year’s audit. While staff applied corrective measures upon the initial finding, this was not in sufficient time to correct the identified practices in FY 2024-25. Management continues to reinforce the policy that requires employees funded by federal grants to document the actual time and effort spent working on those grant activities. Staff continues with the updated timekeeping method for individuals charging partial time to the Housing Choice Voucher (Section 8) program to track actual hours dedicated to the program rather than through budget allocation, and a quarterly certification form is prepared for employees that charge 100% to the Housing Choice Voucher (Section 8) program. Supervisor approvals are documented through the financial system’s electronic workflow. Reports are generated to demonstrate completion. New staff receive training on the payroll approval process to ensure consistent implementation and compliance with procedures.