Finding Text
Finding Reference 2023-001 Federal Agency U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Federal Program: Refugee and Entrant Assistance Voluntary Agency Programs Refugee Entrant and Assistance Program Compliance Requirement: Activities Allowed and Allowable Costs Type of Finding: Material Weakness of Internal Controls and Material Noncompliance Criteria: Refugee and Entrant Assistance Program and Refugee and Refugee Entrant Assistance Voluntary Agency Programs grant funds can only be used to cover expenses related to the operation of these programs. Allowable grant activities include providing eligible refugees with employability and other essential services as outlined in the Refugee Entrant and Assistance Program compliance supplement, preferred communities program guidelines, and 45 CFR § 400.Statement of Condition: During the performance of the audit, four (4) equipment expenses were submitted for reimbursement as supplies expenses when no budgeted funds were available for equipment and six (6) employee’s salaries and wages for unallowed costs and activities were authorized by management for reimbursement. Statement of Cause: Financial and program staff did not identify the expenses submitted for reimbursement as unallowable activities and costs. Effect: Costs not allowable under the terms of the grant were reimbursed by the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services. Questioned Costs: Known Questioned Costs are $ 24,313 and likely questioned costs are $ 15,535 for the Refugee and Entrant Assistance Voluntary Agency Programs, CFDA 93.567. Known Questioned Costs are $ 645 and likely questioned costs are $ 48,041 for the Refugee Entrant and Assistance Program, CFDA 93.566. Context: Timesheets were maintained throughout the year for employees working on Federal Programs, but they did not provide the needed information to allow management to readily identify the work they performed for each program. There is a line on the timesheets where the employee is able to identify which program they were working on, but this was not consistently used. This represents a systemic problem in documenting expenses submitted for Federal reimbursement. The sampling used represented 35% of all non-payroll expenses and 12% of all payroll transactions. Repeat Finding: This was reported in finding 2022-003 in the prior year. Recommendation: Management of the organization needs to maintain complete accounting records to support the grant expenditures claimed during the year which identifies them to a particular program. Views of Responsible Officials and Planned Corrective Actions: We will provide additional training to our fiscal staff to ensure that complete accounting records are maintained. We will conduct periodic internal reviews of our records to ensure that those records support the grant expenditures claimed during the year.