Finding 575328 (2024-001)

Finding 2024-001 – Activities Allowed or Unallowed – Significant Deficiency in Internal Controls Over Compliance and Noncompliance Federal program information: Funding agency: Department of Energy Title: Performance Partnership Grants ALN Number: 66.605 Award year and number: 2022-2026 Criteria: Salaries and wages and fringe benefits charged to awards must be supported by reports reflecting the distribution of activity for each employee whose compensation is charged to the award. Condition/Context: For 13 payroll transactions tested for allowability, we noted that the rate charged to the grant differed from the rate the employee was paid. Cause/Effect: The amount charged to the grant is based on the pay rate included on the employees’ time sheet. The rate had not been appropriately updated on the time sheet which resulted in an incorrect amount being charged to the grant. Repeat Finding – This is not a repeat finding. Auditor’s Recommendations: The Tribe should compare the rate on the time sheets to the rate the employee was paid for each payroll period. Management’s Response: All grant awards were reconciled to reconcile salaries, wages, and fringe benefits to the correct rate. Adjustments were made to multi-year awards or updated Federal Financial Reports were prepared where appropriate. In October 2024, the Tribe implemented a new payroll system, Paycom, that allows employees to code activity directly to an award. The payroll system allocates salary/wages and benefits based on the employee’s current approved rate directly to the grant fund. Paycom will integrate with the Award Management module in the Tribe’s new ERP system, Mission Gov, beginning July 2025, for direct posting.