Finding Text
Finding 2020-004: Payroll
Federal Program: Research and Development Cluster (Education and Human Resources)
Assistance Listing Number and Title: 47.076 STEM Education
Name of Federal Agency, Pass Through Entity (when applicable), Award Number and Year: National Science Foundation: 1500529 (9/1/2015 – 8/31/2022), 1624185 (9/16/2016 – 8/31/2022), 1726113 (8/1/2017 – 9/30/2023)
Significant Deficiency in Internal Controls Over Compliance, Other matters
Criteria or Specific Requirement (Including Statutory, Regulatory, or Other Citation): As noted in 2 CFR 200.303 “The non-Federal entity must establish and maintain effective internal control
over the Federal award that provides reasonable assurance that the non-Federal entity is managing the Federal award in compliance with Federal statutes, regulations, and the terms and conditions of the Federal award. These internal controls should be in compliance with guidance in “Standards for Internal Control in the Federal Government” issued by the Comptroller General of the United States or the “Internal Control Integrated Framework”, issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO).”
Condition: Payroll approvals for individuals are not always made by individuals who are the employee’s supervisors or are otherwise knowledgeable about their level of effort during the payroll periods paid for. Of the 25 individual payroll payments tested to 5 separate individuals, totaling $40,904 charged to federal grants, we identified 16 total payments to 4 separate individuals, totaling $16,226, where the timesheet was approved by the CFO, who we do not consider to be knowledgeable of the employee’s activities during a given pay period. One of these four individuals was a full-time employee and the other three were part-time employees.
Cause: AAPT did not appropriately assign or ensure approval by payroll approvers based on who supervised or was otherwise knowledgeable of employee activity on federal grants.
Effect or Potential Effect: Without an individual knowledgeable of an individual employee’s level of effort approving the time charged there is a greater risk that payroll payments are applied to a federal grant improperly, or leave is otherwise improperly omitted or overapplied to the individual’s leave balance.
Questioned Costs: None noted.
Identification as a Repeat Finding, if Applicable: Not a repeat finding.
Recommendation: We recommend that AAPT change the designated approver for certain employees for whom the designated approver is not the employee’s supervisor or is not otherwise aware of the employee’s work efforts.
Views of Responsible Officials and Planned Corrective Actions: AAPT has made changes to correctly reflect the employee’s assigned supervisor based on the position and job duties of the employees.
Anticipated Completion Date: 04/01/2024
Responsible Official: Michael Brosnan, CFO