Finding Text
2021 - 005 Time and Effort Documentation for Payroll
Federal Agency: U.S. Department of Education
Federal Program Title: Title I, Part A
Assistance Listing Numbers: 84.010
Federal Award Identification Number and Year: S010A210023, 2022
Pass-Through Agency: Minnesota Department of Education
Award Period: July 1, 2021 – June 30, 2022
Type of Finding: Significant Deficiency in Internal Control Over Compliance
Criteria: The Uniform Guidance requires charges to Federal awards for salaries and wages to be based on records that accurately reflect the work performed. In addition, these records must be supported by a system of internal control which provides reasonable assurance that the charges are accurate, allowable, and properly allocated, be incorporated into the official records of the entity, and reasonable reflect the total activity for which the employee is compensated.
Condition: During our testing of a sample of payroll transactions charged to the grant we noted an instance of payroll costs being charged to the program for an employee who did not appear to have worked in the program.
Questioned Costs: None
Context: Of a sample of 40 payroll disbursement charged to the grant we noted one disbursement for which the supporting time and effort documentation showed that the employee did not work in the Title I program.
Cause: The employee’s payroll costs were erroneously coded to the Federal program.
Effect: The District was not in compliance with the Uniform Guidance requirements around allowable costs.
Repeat Finding: This is not a repeat finding from the prior year.
Recommendation: We recommend that the District reviews its procedures and controls over time and effort documentation for wages charged to Federal programs to ensure all documentation accurately reflects the work performed and that the time and effort documentation agrees with how the employee’s wages are allocated to the grant in the finance system.
View of Responsible Official: There is no disagreement with the audit finding.