Finding Text
Allowable Costs/Cost Principles
Finding Number: 2023-002
Assistance Listing Number and Title: AL # 93.323 COVID-19 Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity for Infectious Diseases
Federal Award Identification Number / Year: 06010012EO0222 & 06010012EO0323 / 2023
Federal Agency: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Compliance Requirement: Allowable Costs/Cost Principles
Pass-Through Entity: Ohio Department of Health
Repeat Finding from Prior Audit? No
Noncompliance / Material Weakness / Questioned Cost
45 CFR part 75 gives regulatory effect to the Department of Health and Human Services for 2 CFR sections 200.420 through 200.476. These sections provide the principles to be applied in establishing the allowability of certain items of cost.
Section B2.4 of the Ohio Department of Health (ODH) Grants Administration Policy and Procedures (OGAPP) Manual states compensation must follow the Ohio Department of Administrative Services regulations and meet federal merit system or other requirements, where applicable. Federal guidelines require subrecipients to maintain Time and Activity or Time and Effort reporting to verify time worked for all employees who are charged less than 100% to a specific funding source.
The Health District utilized its own employees for the development and implementation of the COVID-19 Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity for Infectious Diseases subgrant. These employees performed work for multiple grants and/or general business throughout the period. Employees maintained timesheets, which documented the time, date and activities they worked on; however, this documentation was not in agreement with the actual payroll expense charged to the federal grant. We identified 2 out of 3 employees selected for testing had actual and projected payroll costs charged to the federal program totaling $13,366 and $45,588, respectively, that was not supported by Time and Activity or Time and Effort documentation.
Failure to complete accurate time and effort documentation and ensuring the documentation is in agreement with costs charged to federal grants could result in the Health District not meeting federal compliance requirements and result in questioned costs for federal programs.
The Health District should implement and have controls in place to ensure salaries and wages are adequately documented and properly charged to the respective federal programs.
Officials’ Response: See Corrective Action Plan