Finding Text
Program Name: Child Nutrition Cluster
Assistance Listing Number: 10.553 and 10.555
Pass-Through Agency: Georgia Department of Education
Finding: 2023-004 – Allowable Costs
Criteria: In accordance with the terms of the Child Nutrition Grant and 2 CFR 200, Cost Principles for States, Local Governments, and Indian Tribes, specific documentation must be maintained to support salaries and wages charged to the federal program. Where employees are expected to work solely on a single Federal award or cost objective, charges for their salaries and wages will be supported by periodic certifications that the employees worked solely on that program for the period covered by the certification. These certifications will be prepared at least semiannually and will be signed by the employee or supervisory official having first-hand knowledge of the work performed by the employee. Where employees work on multiple activities or cost objectives, a distribution of their salaries or wages will be supported by personnel activity reports or equivalent documentation.
Condition and Context: For the fiscal year ended June 30, 2023, internal controls over compliance were not sufficient to ensure the District was properly charging payroll costs which were reimbursed by the Child Nutrition grant. In our sample of forty (40) employees who were paid with Child Nutrition funds, we noted two of the selected employees did not have any of the required monthly certifications, six employees were missing one or more month’s certifications, and four employees’ certifications were missing signatures from the supervising official.
Cause: A lack of oversight by personnel in the Office of Federal Grants and Program Compliance led to noncompliance with the requirements of the Uniform Guidance in relation to charging of personnel costs to a federal grant.
Effects or Possible Effects: Personnel salaries unrelated to eligible Child Nutrition activities could be charged to and reimbursed by the District’s federal grants.
Questioned Costs: All amounts paid to those employees who did not have a semiannual certification could be questioned. These amounted to $247,000. When comparing the known questioned costs to the sample total of $16,683,000, the error rate for the selected sample was 5%. The error rate projected onto the total population of payroll costs, resulted in a likely questioned cost of $4,884,000.
Recommendation: We recommend District personnel perform periodic reviews of the general ledger to ensure appropriate documentation is obtained for all payroll costs charged to the Child Nutrition grant. Furthermore, in instances where changes are made to employee assignments (including termination) involving federal grants, we recommend the District review payroll costs for those employees in the periods immediately following the changes to ensure they are appropriately reflected in the accounting records and thus properly charged to the District’s federal grant programs.
Auditee’s Response: We concur with this finding.