Finding 977833 (2023-002)

Significant Deficiency
Requirement
B
Questioned Costs
-
Year
2023
Accepted
2024-06-21

AI Summary

  • Core Issue: Personnel expenses were not reconciled to time and effort reports, leading to under-claiming of costs.
  • Impacted Requirements: Internal controls failed to align with 2 CFR 200.430(i), which mandates accurate tracking of personnel expenses across multiple funding sources.
  • Recommended Follow-Up: Implement a fiscal year reconciliation process for personnel expenditures and ensure all allocations are tracked, reviewed, and approved before general ledger entry.

Finding Text

Criteria: 2 CFR 200.430(i) requires the auditee to establish and maintain effective internal control over the allocation of personnel expenses whereby charges to Federal awards for personnel-related expenditures are supported by official records of 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. Budget estimates alone do not qualify as support for charges to Federal awards, but may be used for interim accounting purposes, provided that: The non-federal entity's system of internal controls includes processes to review after-the-fact interim charges made to a Federal award based on budget estimates. All necessary adjustment must be made such that the final amount charged to the Federal award is accurate, allowable and properly allocated. Condition: Personnel expenses were not reconciled to T&E reports during the fiscal year, which resulted in personnel expenses being under-claimed. Cause: Internal controls surrounding time and effort reporting were designed to perform allocation reconciliations based on the award period instead of the fiscal year. Questioned costs: none. Recommendation: We recommend that management implement a process whereby reporting is reconciled based on fiscal year. We recommend that all personnel expenditures allocated to grants are tracked, reviewed, and approved prior to recording in the general ledger. Views of responsible officials and planned corrective actions: See attached corrective action plan.

Categories

Allowable Costs / Cost Principles

Other Findings in this Audit

  • 401390 2023-002
    Significant Deficiency
  • 401391 2023-002
    Significant Deficiency
  • 977832 2023-002
    Significant Deficiency

Programs in Audit

ALN Program Name Expenditures
93.365 Sickle Cell Treatment Demonstration Program $969,527
93.110 Maternal and Child Health Federal Consolidated Programs $513,993
93.080 Blood Disorder Program: Prevention, Surveillance, and Research $380,451