Finding Text
1) ALN 14.218 Community Development Block Grants/Entitlement Grants provided through the City of Milwaukee
2) Criteria: Reported costs on grants should match recorded costs in the financial accounting system. Payroll costs recorded in the general ledger and reported on grant cost reports should be based off the time sheets prepared by employees and reviewed by supervisors.
3) Condition: Costs reported on the grant cost reports do not match the costs reported in the financial system for salaries of certain staff, primarily for staff working in more than one program. From January – September 2023 no salaries were allocated in the financial system to the City of Milwaukee Hydrophonics program, however, costs were charged for salaries on grant cost reports. According to management, the program was active during this time, however, timesheets didn’t have an appropriate tracking of this program and so wages were not allocated in the financial system. Management believes the amounts charged on cost reports are accurate, however documentation of timesheets doesn’t provide enough information to test. In addition, the allocation spreadsheet used to enter the monthly payroll costs in the financial system had an error in one payroll tested and two time sheets were not provided to the auditor for testing.
4) Cause: The Organization was preparing a worksheet of costs based on timesheets and using this to enter into the accounting system. A separate allocation worksheet was used to prepare grant reports which also included an allocation of time and wages per employee. The allocations in the two systems were not always matching.
5) Effect: While management believes the amounts charged on cost reports are accurate, the general ledger required reclassification journal entries to increase salaries for the following grants to match cost reports as follows: Hydrophonics $14,424, Repro Arborist $4,429, COVID $10,052 and, UMOS $4,987. All programs had losses after the reclassification adjustments, and, therefore, no revenue received from the City of Milwaukee was unused by the programs.
6) Questioned costs: See consideration of losses by program noted in the Effect.
7) Prevalence or consequence: The process was in place throughout the year.
8) Repeated audit finding: This is not a repeat finding.
9) Recommendation to prevent future occurrences: It is recommended that the worksheet used to allocate salaries based on timesheets be used to also create grant cost reports. In addition, it is recommended that the timesheets be regularly reviewed and updated to include all programs, agency wide work, and fundraising to account for all possible activities. It is also recommended that the cost reports be reconciled to the general ledger on a monthly basis.
10) Views of responsible officials at auditee: Timesheets will be updated to reflect all active programs and support functions. The worksheet that is used to compile employee hours will be used to allocate in the financial system and on the grant cost reports so that all systems align. Responsible Employee: Tony Kearney is responsible for determining that the system is updated by the accounting department. Corrective Action Implementation Date: September 2024.