Finding 7829 (2023-001)

Significant Deficiency
Requirement
A
Questioned Costs
$1
Year
2023
Accepted
2024-01-08

AI Summary

  • Core Issue: Two employees' time was not tracked, leading to potential inaccuracies in salary charges to grant-funded programs.
  • Impacted Requirements: Federal regulations require accurate tracking of employee work hours to ensure proper allocation of salaries and wages.
  • Recommended Follow-Up: Implement a time and effort policy to record actual hours worked, ensuring documentation is signed and reviewed against the budget.

Finding Text

Statement of Condition: Employee time charged to programs funded by the grant was not tracked for two employees out of a sample of twenty-five. Questioned Costs: Known questioned costs $1,113. Likely questioned costs approximately $26,700. Criteria: Federal requirements require charges for salaries and wages to be based upon records that accurately reflect the actual work performed and be supported by a system of internal controls that reasonably assure that the charges are accurate, allowable, and properly allocated. The records should support the distribution of the employee’s salary or wages among the specific activities (grants) charged. Cause: The Organization did not track the actual time of two employees who charged to a percentage of their time to programs funded by the grant. Instead, a budgeted rate was applied to the employees throughout the fiscal year. Effect: Salaries and wages charged to specific grants might not accurately reflect the actual time and effort applied to those grants. Recommendation: We recommend that a time and effort policy be implemented in order to comply with applicable cost principles. Charges for salaries and wages must be supported by records indicating the total number of hours worked each day, with a breakdown by specific program. These should be signed by the employee and other responsible individual with knowledge of the employee’s activity. These should then be reviewed and reconciled with the budget by grant.

Corrective Action Plan

Management’s Response – Corrective Action Plan: When using federal funds to compensate employees, Child & Family Resources (CFR) acknowledges that the internal controls need to reasonably assure that the charges are accurate, allowable and properly allocated. The records should support the distribution of the employee’s salary or wages among the specific activities charged. CFR uses a third party payroll company (Paycom) for payroll and time and attendance reporting. The payroll allocations are tracked based on percentages approved by the funding source or by employee entries on their timesheet reflecting the grant they are working on. For direct service employees that are allocated to various federal grants, CFR will include the following information on the budget narrative that will outline the specific employee, their time allocation and need. The Federal Program will be able to review and approve the amount of time these employees will spend under their specific grant rendering the allocation as an allowable expense. The language to be included within the budget narrative outlining this allocation is as follows: Labor Costs (Special Considerations): Compensation to members of the non-profit institution, trustees, directors, associates, officers and immediate family thereof: (Name of employee with breakdown of time to be spent on contract) Explanation of why this cost is necessary for the (Program’s) Operations: What is the total cost to the agency? Is the cost a less-than-arms-length transaction? Contact Person: The Grants & Contracts Coordinator (Scott Fauland) will complete the budget narratives for the federal funding agencies and include the above language within them in order to receive approval from the contracting agency. Completion Date CFR will submit the Special Considerations request to the current federal contracts awarded for Fiscal Year 2024 by December 2023 for approval. On new federal contracts, this language will be included on the budget narratives submitted from the original submission. This will be implemented for new contracts starting December 1, 2023.

Categories

Questioned Costs Allowable Costs / Cost Principles Internal Control / Segregation of Duties

Other Findings in this Audit

  • 7830 2023-001
    Significant Deficiency
  • 584271 2023-001
    Significant Deficiency
  • 584272 2023-001
    Significant Deficiency

Programs in Audit

ALN Program Name Expenditures
10.558 Child and Adult Care Food Program $2.38M
93.575 Child Care and Development Block Grant $1.35M
93.060 Competitive Abstinence Education (cae) $458,621
93.959 Block Grants for Prevention and Treatment of Substance Abuse $89,910
93.276 Drug-Free Communities Support Program Grants $72,581
93.243 Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services_projects of Regional and National Significance $41,300
93.788 Opioid Str $38,979
20.600 State and Community Highway Safety $15,100
21.027 Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds $13,821