Finding 973011 (2023-004)

-
Requirement
N
Questioned Costs
$1
Year
2023
Accepted
2024-05-13
Audit: 306138
Organization: Keppel Union School District (CA)
Auditor: Nigro & Nigro PC

AI Summary

  • Core Issue: The District failed to provide necessary time accounting documentation for 15 employees charged to federal Education Stabilization Funds.
  • Impacted Requirements: This violates 2 CFR, section 200.430 and CSAM Procedure 905, which mandate accurate documentation of employee work on federal awards.
  • Recommended Follow-Up: Implement robust controls to ensure timely maintenance of employee time certification forms for all federal fund charges.

Finding Text

Criteria: 2 CFR, section 200.430 states, in part: (i) Standards for Documentation of Personnel Expenses (1) Charges to Federal awards for salaries and wages must be based on records that accurately reflect the work performed. These records must: (vii) Support the distribution of the employee's salary or wages among specific activities or cost objectives if the employee works on more than one Federal award; a Federal award and non-Federal award; an indirect cost activity and a direct cost activity; two or more indirect activities which are allocated using different allocation bases; or an unallowable activity and a direct or indirect cost activity. 2 CFR, section 200.303 states, in part: The non-Federal entity must: (a) Establish and maintain effective internal control over the Federal award that provides reasonable assurance that the non-Federal entity is managing the Federal award in compliance with Federal statutes, regulations, and the terms and conditions of the Federal award. CSAM Procedure 905 states, in part: Periodic (Semiannual) Certification Employees who work solely on a single federal award or cost objective need only complete a periodic certification. The periodic certification must: be prepared at least semiannually. Be signed by the employee or the supervisory official having firsthand knowledge of the work performed by the employee. State the employee worked solely on that single federal program or cost objective during the period covered by the certification. Where multiple employees work on the same cost objective, a blanket certification may be used as the documentation for all employees who worked on the cost objective. Personnel Activity Report Except as provided in “Substitute Systems for Time Accounting” employees who work on multiple activities or cost objectives of which at least one is federal must complete a personnel activity report (PAR) or equivalent documentation. A PAR may be as detailed as a document that identifies the employee’s activity daily by hours, or it may be as simple as a report of the total hours or percentage of hours spent in each categorical program or cost objective. The level of detail can generally be determined by the diversity and variation of the employee’s work activities. The safest approach is to provide more documentation rather than less. Condition: We identified 15 employees whose salaries were charged to Education Stabilization Funds but the District was unable to provide time accounting documentation for the 2022-23 fiscal year. Context: Exceptions were discovered in all 15 employees sampled. Questioned Costs: Total questioned cost for the 15 employees is $66,793. Cause: The District does not have adequate controls in place to ensure that time certification documentation is prepared and maintained to support all employees who are paid with federal funds. Effect: District may be overcharging the Education Stabilization funds for time which isn’t spent directly working on the program. Recommendation: We recommend that the District comply with 2 CFR, section 200.303, and CSAM Procedure 905, which require that employee time certification forms be maintained for employees who charge time to federal program. Views of Responsible Officials: Starting April 1, 2024, Keppel Union School District will require all employees funded by more than one resource to fill out a PAR Form. The District will require those funded by one restricted resource to be covered by a blanket semi-annual PAR Form.

Categories

Questioned Costs Allowable Costs / Cost Principles Matching / Level of Effort / Earmarking

Other Findings in this Audit

Programs in Audit

ALN Program Name Expenditures
10.553 School Breakfast Program $1.41M
84.365 English Language Acquisition State Grants $175,615
84.010 Title I Grants to Local Educational Agencies $158,033
10.555 National School Lunch Program $153,378
84.367 Improving Teacher Quality State Grants $129,431
84.425 Education Stabilization Fund $68,388
93.575 Child Care and Development Block Grant $62,400
84.027 Special Education_grants to States $17,771
10.558 Child and Adult Care Food Program $16,304
93.323 Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity for Infectious Diseases (elc) $13,930
10.665 Schools and Roads - Grants to States $5,344
84.173 Special Education_preschool Grants $130