Finding Text
Criteria: Uniform Guidance requires an employee whose salary and wages are supported, in whole or
in part, with Federal funds to document his/her time spent working on Federal programs in order to
ensure that charges to each Federal program reflect an accurate account of the employee’s time and
effort devoted to that program. CFR 200.430 states, “Charges to Federal Awards for salaries and wages
must be based on records that accurately reflect the work performed. These records must be supported
by a system of internal control which provides reasonable assurance that the charges are accurate,
allowable, and properly allocated.”
The records must also “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.
Condition: A sample of 7 payroll transactions were selected for testing from a population of 67
transactions. The sample included all personnel with time allocated to the program. Through testing, it
was found that there were no records maintained to support the portion of time and effort dedicated to
the program.
Cause and Effect: Due to staff turnover during the year, the Organization neglected to maintain the
required documentation. The Organization receives federal funding based on allowable costs charged
to the program. If documentation is not maintained to support the allowability of costs charged to the
program, the Organization may be utilizing the funds for expenses which are unallowable. This may
result in the return of federal funds to the funding agency for the unallowable costs, if deemed
appropriate.
Questioned Costs: Salary and related benefits of employees charged to the program = $223,234
Identification as a repeat finding: There was no single audit requirement in the prior year and therefore,
this finding is not reported as a repeated finding.
Recommendation: We recommend that controls be reviewed and revised to ensure that time and effort
distribution records are prepared for staff who are charged to federal programs. These records should
also be reviewed, approved, and maintained by administrative personnel.