Finding Text
Finding 2022-002: Allowable Costs/Cost Principles ? Personnel Time Allocations Compliance Requirement: Allowable Costs/Cost Principles Internal Control Impact: Significant Deficiency and Nonmaterial Noncompliance Federal Agency: Department of Health and Human Services AL Numbers and Titles: 93.860 ? Emerging Infections Sentinel Networks Federal Award Number: 6 NU50CK000478 Questioned Costs: $9,728 Repeat Finding: No Criteria: Per the HHS Policies, compensation costs are allowable to the extent that they are reasonable, conform to the established policy of the organization consistently applied regardless of the source of funds, and reflect no more than the percentage of time actually devoted to the project. Condition: Salaries and wages were charged to the project based on projected amounts and not actual incurred costs. Cause: As a result of this oversight error, the Society overcharged $9,728 of direct costs. Sufficient review controls were not in place to detect the overcharge. Effect: Failure to charge the actual percentage of time devoted to the project may lead to noncompliance with grant terms and conditions. Recommendation: We recommend that the entity strengthen its internal controls over the allocation of employee time charged to federal grants in order to ensure that costs charged to the program were accounted for in accordance with the applicable cost principles. Views of Responsible Officials Corrective Actions: Management agrees with this finding. Please refer to the Corrective Action Plan.