Finding 396198 (2023-002)

Significant Deficiency Repeat Finding

Requirement

Questioned Costs

Year

2023

Accepted

2024-05-08

Audit: 305832

Organization: Child-Parent Centers, Inc. (AZ)

Auditor: Beachfleischman PLLC

AI Summary

Core Issue: Timesheets were not approved by supervisors, violating internal control policies.
Impacted Requirements: Compliance with organizational policies for timesheet approval is essential for accountability.
Recommended Follow-Up: Ensure adherence to approval procedures, consider extending signoff time, and require supervisor responses to emails for compliance.

Finding Text

Assistance Listing Number and Title: 93.600 Head Start Federal Agency: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Federal Award Numbers: 09CH010651 Grant period: September 1, 2022 - August 31, 2023 As discussed at Finding 2023-001, internal controls should be in place to provide reasonable assurance that employee timesheets are appropriately approved by supervisors at the end of the pay period. We found three instances where time sheets were not approved by an appropriate supervisor. We recommend the Organization adhere to its policies and procedures for approving timesheets, reevaluate if more time should be provided for supervisor signoff, and require supervisor response as appropriate to emails to ensure compliance with the controls.

Corrective Action Plan

Recommendation: We recommend the Organization adhere to its policies and procedures for approving timesheets and reevaluate if more time should be provided for supervisor signoff. Auditee response: Child-Parent Centers acknowledges and agrees with this finding. In response to this finding last year, we communicated with our staff regarding the importance of supervisor approvals, and leadership made it a priority to improve existing controls and identify any areas where new controls may be required. These improvements were made during the year. As our Fiscal Year was already underway at the time of the finding, these improvements were implemented mid-year of the audited period. All the instances of lack of approval were from the period prior to our Organization implementing these improvements, and none of the timesheets selected from review during the period subsequent to the implementation showed a lack of approval.

Other Findings in this Audit

972640 2023-002

Significant Deficiency Repeat

Programs in Audit

ALN	Program Name	Expenditures
93.600	Head Start	$39.10M
10.558	Child and Adult Care Food Program	$1.34M
21.027	Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds	$329,945
93.596	Child Care Mandatory and Matching Funds of the Child Care and Development Fund	$204,014