Illinois Public Health Association

Criteria: Per 2 CFR 200.403, costs charged to federal awards must be necessary, reasonable, and adequately documented. Additionally, 2 CFR 200.430 requires payroll costs charged to federal awards to be accurately supported and properly allocated to the benefiting program. Condition: During testing of expenditures charged to the federal award, we identified contractual payroll amounts that were charged to the grant for instruction and curriculum development activities. However, these activities were already charged to the grant through the separate training fee (HRSA-approved fee-for-service). This essentially resulted in these payroll expenditures being double charged to the grant. Cause: Management indicated that the duplication resulted from confusion regarding the proper treatment and recording of contractual payroll costs under the grant requirements, which led to the amounts being charged to the program more than once. Effect: As a result, contractual payroll costs charged to the federal award were overstated. Questioned Costs: Questioned costs totaling $ 6,405 were identified as duplicated contractual payroll amounts charged to the grant. Recommendation: We recommend that management implement additional review procedures over payroll allocations charged to federal awards and ensure staff responsible for grant accounting receive additional guidance regarding grant requirements to prevent similar errors in the future. Management Response: Management agrees with the finding. Management has already corrected by reducing the most recent drawdown from HRSA by the amount in question. Management will also implement additional review procedures to prevent similar errors in the future.