Finding Text
Federal Agency: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Federal Program Name: SOR Recovery Support Services
Assistance Listing Number: 93.788
Federal Award Identification Number and Year: K4849-02 – 2022, K6479 - 2023
Pass-Through Agency: Washington State Health Care Authority
Pass-Through Number(s): K4849-02, K6479
Award Period: September 30, 2020 – September 29, 2022; September 29, 2022 – September 28, 2023
Type of Finding: - Material Weakness in Internal Control over Compliance – Allowable Costs and Activities; Material Noncompliance (Modified Opinion)
Criteria or specific requirement: Proper internal controls over time and effort are to be in place in order to ensure payroll costs are properly charged to grants.
Condition: Time sheets did not indicate the project/grant the employee worked on for the pay period to support allocation to the grant. For July 2022 through January 2023 payroll costs were charged 100% to either ALN 93.959 or ALN 93.788 and were not allocated based on the employee's time spent working in the programs. For February 2023 through June 2023 payroll costs were allocated to the grants based on the amount of expenses paid on behalf of program participants during the month for items such as rent, groceries, utilities, etc.
Questioned costs: Unknown due to inadequate tracking of time.
Context: Of the 10 payroll transactions tested for the SOR program, one was properly charged to the grant and supported by time and effort documentation.
Time and effort was not properly tracked during the audit period between the SOR and SABG program. Eligibility requirements for the SOR program are more restrictive, thus not all time spent providing services to SABG and SOR participants would meet the allowable costs and activities requirements of the program.
Cause: Time and effort between the SOR and SABG programs was not tracked during the audit period to accurately allocate time between the programs.
Effect: Payroll costs were not charged to the program based on time and effort.
Repeat finding: Not a repeat finding.
Recommendation: We recommend time spent on the SOR program be coded to a unique project code in order to ensure time and effort is properly identified and tracked for the program.
Views of responsible officials: There is no disagreement with the audit finding.