Finding Text
Federal Agency: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Federal Program Name: Health Centers Cluster
Assistance Listing Number: 93.224 and 93.527
Federal Award Identification
Number: H80CS00824-21-00; H80CS00824-22-00; H8FCS41534-01-02
Award Periods: May 1, 2022 – April 30, 2023; May 1, 2023 – April 30, 2024; April 1, 2021
– March 31, 2023, respectively
Type of Finding: Compliance and material weakness in internal control over compliance
Criteria:
A grantee's system of internal control should include processes to review after-the-fact interim charges made to a Federal award based on budget estimates. 45 CFR 75.430(i)(1). In addition, CFR 200.430 indicates costs of compensation are allowable to the extent that they satisfy the specific requirement of determining and supporting the salary and wages based on records that accurately reflect the work performed. Salaries and wages charged to a grant should be tagged/identified by employee to ensure expenses are not counted or charged twice.
Condition:
The Organization did not verify that the wages being charged to the grant were consistent with the amount paid to employees. The internal controls over compliance were not properly set up to identify this until the audit testing was complete. In addition, the organization had inconsistent methods of
tracking wages being charged to federal grants. Records were not kept consistently to support how employee wages were identified prior to drawdowns being submitted.
Questioned Costs:
As a result of our audit procedures, we identified questioned costs in the amount of $977 related to the Organization charging wages in excess of the amount actually paid to the employee.
Context:
One (1) of forty (40) transactions
Cause:
The organization had inconsistent methods of tracking salaries and wages charged to the grant and did not verify that the wages charged to the grant matched what was incurred by the Organization and paid to the employee.
Effect:
The Organization may inadvertently over charge the grant for wages that were not incurred or paid to employees. Repeat Finding:
No.
Recommendation:
We recommend the Organization implement a comprehensive and thorough process to review all wages charged to federal and state grant prior to initiating a drawdown request or submitting a reimbursement request to the grantor. As part of this, the Organization should implement a consistent process for identifying the specific employees and wages being charged to each grant.