CASS COUNTY NEBRASKALocal Government

Program - AL 21.019 - Coronavirus Relief Fund - Allowability Grant Number & Year - Not Available, FFY 2021 Federal Grantor Agency - U.S. Department of Treasury Criteria - Title 2 of the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) ? 200.403 (January 1, 2021) requires costs charged to Federal programs to be reasonable, necessary, and adequately documented. Further, Title 2 CFR ? 200.430(i)(1) (January 1, 2021) states, ?Charges to Federal awards for salaries and wages must be based on records that accurately reflect the work performed.? A good internal control plan requires adequate procedures to ensure that Federal reimbursement requests are accurately completed using appropriate underlying data, such as timesheets and payroll registers, to confirm the amounts requested properly reflect the amounts claimed and paid by the County. Condition - During testing of eight employees? payroll from March 2020 through May 2020, we noted the following: ? For six of eight employees, we noted that the County was reimbursed for a total of 266 hours in which the employees were using vacation or sick leave; however, the County was reimbursed for leave earned during that period as part of the fringe benefit calculation. The inclusion of these hours in the request resulted in a duplicate reimbursement of vacation and sick leave hours used. ? For eight of eight employees, we noted that the County did not correctly calculate fringe benefits associated with each employee. This appears to be due to the failure of the County to consider each employee?s individual fringe benefit costs and, instead, the same fringe benefit percentages were used for every employee. Further, the County did not consider a different fringe benefit calculation for overtime hours, nor for employees who did not work a standard 2080-hour work year. The table below details the variances: See Schedule of Findings and Questioned Costs for chart/table.The total Federal sample tested was $120,809, and the total Federal CRF expenditures were $1,272,845. Based on the sample tested, the case error rate was 100% (8/8). The dollar error rate was 0.24% ($286/$120,809), which projects the potential dollars at risk for fiscal year 2021 to be $3,055. Repeat Finding - No Questioned Costs - $286 Statistical Sample - No Cause - Unknown Effect - Without adequate procedures to ensure reimbursed wages and fringe benefits are calculated appropriately, and for actual and allowable costs, there is an increased risk for the misuse of Federal funds and noncompliance with Federal regulations. Recommendation - We recommend the County implement procedures to ensure wages and fringe benefits charged to a Federal grant are calculated appropriately, and for actual and allowable costs. View of Officials - The Coronavirus Relief Fund (CRF) Grant was a one-time grant associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. The County does not anticipate this grant to be available for any future reimbursements. The County will consider implementing procedures should similar grants become available in the future. Such procedures would include a secondary review of grant reimbursements to ensure amounts requested are proper. Future grants will have more checks and balances prior to submission.