Finding Text
Identification of the federal program: 97.047 – Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC)
Noncompliance and material weakness in internal controls over allowable activities, allowable costs and period of
performance.
Criteria:
Proper oversight, review procedures and controls should be established to ensure the amounts submitted for
equipment hours are adequately supported.
Condition:
The Cooperative uses an Excel spreadsheet to track equipment hours. No backup documentation was maintained
to support the equipment or the number of hours shown on the Excel spreadsheet and ultimately charged to the
grant.
Cause:
There was lack of proper submission and review of equipment hours charged to the grant.
Effect:
The absence of supporting documentation and proper review procedures increases the risk of errors, inaccuracies,
or omissions in submitted expenses.
Questioned Costs:
$298,940
Recommendations:
The Cooperative should establish oversight and review procedures to ensure all equipment hours are properly
submitted by employees and reviewed by management prior to the submission of them for reimbursement. In
addition, the Cooperative should develop documentation standards to comply with retention policies.
Views of responsible officials:
During the Alderwood work, our operations manager tracked equipment usage and reported it to the accounting
department. FEMA rates were used based on the hours provided. Moving forward we have set up to have equipment usage captured within the timesheets by each employee. Timesheets are then approved by the supervisor.