Finding Text
Finding 2022-002 - Controls Over Payroll Expenditures (Material Weakness) Criteria: 2 CFR 200.403 establishes principles and standards for determining costs for federal awards carried out through grants, cost reimbursement contracts, and other agreements with state and local governments. To be allowable, under federal awards, cost must meet certain criteria: a) Be necessary and reasonable for the performance of the Federal award and be allocable thereto under these principles. b) Conform to any limitations or exclusions set forth in these principles or in the Federal award as to types or amount of cost items. c) Be consistent with policies and procedures that apply uniformly to both federally-financed and other activities of the non-Federal entity. d) Be accorded consistent treatment. A cost may not be assigned to a Federal award as a direct cost if any other cost incurred for the same purpose in like circumstances has been allocated to the Federal award as an indirect cost. e) Be determined in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), except, for state and local governments and Indian tribes only, as otherwise provided for in this part. f) Not be included as a cost or used to meet cost sharing or matching requirements of any other federally financed program in either the current or a prior period. g) Be adequately documented. h) Cost must be incurred during the approved budget period. Additionally, 2 CFR 200.303 indicates that non-Federal Entities receiving Federal awards must establish and maintain effective internal control over the Federal award that provides reasonable assurance that the nonFederal entity is managing the Federal award in compliance with Federal statutes, regulations and terms and conditions of the Federal award. The Corporation should have controls in place to document that salaries and overtime paid with federal funds were allowable. Timecards supporting hours worked should be approved and pay rates reviewed. Condition and Context: A summary of allowable charges for the grant was prepared for submission. Differences were noted when comparing the summary to timecards. Within the sample of 45, we noted that 31 timecards did not have a documented review. From the sample, we noted that the pay advice form, which reflects pay rate changes, for 2 employees did not indicate signature by an approver and only indicated the requestor?s signature. The employees? new pay rate as indicated on the pay advice form was reflected in the payroll expenditure. Additionally, within the sample of 45, we noted 1 employee that did not have a pay advice form or contract to support the pay rate. We noted the following control items: ? 31 out of 45 timecards tested did not have documented review. ? 2 out of 45 employees tested did not have pay advice forms signed by both the requestor and reviewer. Only the requestor signed the form. ? 1 out of 45 employees tested did not have a pay advice form or other supporting documentation for the pay rate. Effect: Payroll expenditures could be inaccurately charged to the federal grant. Cause: The lack of documented timecard and pay rate approval were an oversight. Questioned Costs: None Recommendation: We recommend the Corporation maintain documented approval of all timecards and pay rate increases. Views of responsible officials and planned corrective actions: Management agrees with the finding and has prepared a corrective action plan.