Finding Text
Department of Health and Human Services Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, 93.558 Allowable Activities and Costs Significant Deficiency in Internal Control over Compliance Grant Award Number: Affects all grant awards under assistance listing 93.558 on the Consolidated Schedule of Expenditures of Federal Awards Criteria: Goodwill-Easter Seals Minnesota?s internal control structure should be designed to properly follow the allocation policy for employees? pay to each grant in accordance with the policy established by Goodwill-Easter Seals Minnesota. Condition: Goodwill-Easter Seals Minnesota has an internal control system designed to detect or prevent improper allocation of employees pay to grants in a timely manner in accordance with their established policy, but the controls did not operate as designed. Cause: Goodwill-Easter Seals Minnesota has a process for allocating employee wages based on hours worked; however, during the year for multiple pay periods, it did not follow this process. The controls in place did not operate as designed and failed to detect errors in the allocation of employee pay to the grants. Effect: Employees had some of their pay allocated improperly and not in accordance with the policy established. Questioned Costs: None reported. Context/Sampling: A nonstatistical sample of four pay periods out of 26 were selected for testing where 100% of the employees with time allocated to the grant was recalculated. Three of the four pay periods tested had some payroll expenses allocated or calculated improperly for at least one individual with time allocated to the grant. Repeat Finding from Prior Year: No Recommendation: We recommend that management develop a more extensive review over timesheet allocation to ensure pay is properly allocated to each grant in accordance with the policy established by Goodwill-Easter Seals Minnesota. Views of Responsible Officials: Management agrees with this finding.