Finding Text
FINDINGS AND QUESTIONED COSTS-MAJOR FEDERAL AWARD PROGRAM AUDIT
Finding 2023-001: Compliance finding - Payroll
U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services
Comm. Of MA, Department of Public Health
Immunization Coop Agreements (ALN# 93.268)
Condition: Payroll expenses charged to certain programs are not supported by actual
time spent, but instead are allocated based upon the program budgets. Employees for
those programs do not track which programs are being worked on throughout the day.
Time is tracked in general and then applied to each program, based on the budget
worksheet.
Criteria or specific requirement: § 200.430 Compensation-personal services -
budget estimates alone do not qualify as support for charges to Federal awards, but
may be used for interim accounting purposes, provided that the system for establishing
the estimates produces reasonable approximations of the activity actually performed.
Cause: Employees are not charged with tracking their time by individual program and
allocation of their wages is done by budget estimates.
Effect: Payroll expenses charged to programs based upon program budgets and
potentially do not accurately reflect the time spent by Organization staff on each
program - misstatement of payroll expenses.
Recommendation: Use of a Semi-Annual Personnel Activity Certification Form for
each employee funded by a federal program.
Management Response: Management has engaged a third party vendor for a new
time and attendance software that will allow all hours worked and related programs to
be tracked accurately. A contract has been signed and the software is actively being
implemented.