Finding Text
2024-002 – U.S. Department of Education, For the Period July 1, 2023 through June 30, 2024, Assistance Listing #84.425 Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund
Statement of Condition: Documentation of wage rate requirements in construction contracts was not performed.
Criteria: All laborers and mechanics employed by contractors or subcontractors to work on construction contracts in excess of $2,000 financed by federal assistance funds must be paid wages not less than those established for the locality of the project (prevailing wage rates) by the Department of Labor. Management needs to ensure that all federally funded construction contracts contain language requiring that all contractors and subcontractors are submitting weekly certified payrolls and verify that they are being paid at least the prevailing wage rates.
Cause: When performing our compliance testing, we discovered that construction contracts did not contain the prevailing wage rate clause.
Effect: Employees could potentially not be paid prevailing wage rates which could jeopardize grant funding.
Recommendation: Management needs to ensure that all construction contracts with contractors in excess of $2,000 have a prevailing wage rate clause.
Questioned Costs: None