CASA OF TARRANT COUNTYNon-Profit

Finding 2020-001 Federal Program CFDA 16.575 ? Victims of Crime Act Formula Grant Program, U.S. Department of Justice, passed-through from the Texas Office of the Governor, Criminal Justice Division Criteria Uniform Guidance and requirements established by the pass-through grantor states that charges to Federal awards for salaries and wages must be based on records that accurately reflect the work performed. These records must 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. Employees working solely (100% of their time) on a single grant may periodically certify that the employee worked solely on that grant project. In addition to the periodic certifications, nonexempt employees must also maintain time sheets indicating the total number of hours worked each day. Condition and Context In a sample of 30 payroll transactions charged to the major federal program, we noted the following: ? One employee?s salary was charged to the federal program, but no supporting time sheet or certification was obtained. The amount of this federal expenditure was $3,548. ? One employee who worked less than 100% on the federal award was charged to the federal program based on a certification-approach rather than the exact rate determined from the time sheet. Had the correct amount been charged to the federal program, the difference would have been less than $22. ? Four time sheets signed by the employees were intended to certify that the employees worked 100% on the federal program for a given month. However, the time was entered on these time sheets indicated less than 100% of the employees? time was related to the grant. We determined these were errors in completing the time sheets rather than errors in amounts charged to the federal award. ? Two time sheets had formula errors in sub-total line items, although the final totals used to calculate amounts related to federal awards were clerically accurate. These instances indicate internal controls over compliance related to time sheets is not functioning in a manner that would ensure noncompliance would be detected and corrected in a timely manner. Cause Time sheets are not obtained and reviewed in sufficient detail prior to requesting reimbursement from the federal program. Questioned Costs: Known and likely questioned costs were less than $25,000. Effect The transactions referenced above resulted in approximately $3,600 charged to the federal program with insufficient documentation. Recommendation We recommend that management ensure time sheets are obtained, reviewed, and approved prior to related amounts being requested for reimbursement from federal or state programs. The review control should consider whether requirements as described above have been met.

Federal agency: Governor?s Criminal Justice Division Federal program title: Victims of Crime Act CFDA Number: 16.575 Award Period: 10/01/2018 through 09/30/2019 and 10/01/2019 through 09/30/2020 Type of Finding: Significant Deficiency in Internal Control over Compliance; Other Matter Criteria or specific requirement: The organization must track time and effort based on actual activities performed by the employee. Further, the organization must maintain appropriate personnel records in order to ensure that time and effort is properly documented and maintained, and that proper review and approval of effort spent on federal funds must also be in place. Condition: The Organization charges salaries to the grant based on the employee positions in the grantor approved budget instead of tracking the employees actual time spent on the program. Employee time sheets are pre-allocated for programs based on the employees? position and which grant they are being charged to. Employees do not always use the most recently updated timesheets which resulted in discrepancies between the employees? documented time and what is supported by what was charged to grants. Context: CLA reviewed 100% of the salaries charged to the grant for the employees whose time was not maintained properly and found that the organization did not properly track employee time and effort. These errors resulted from employees using the incorrect allocations on their time sheets. However, it was noted that these employees worked almost exclusively on this program and no questioned costs were identified. Cause: Employees are not properly tracking their time and effort, and the supervisors were not properly reviewing the time cards for accuracy. Effect: Although none of the errors resulted in questioned costs, failure to follow established controls over review of time sheets and failure to maintain proper payroll records could result in inappropriate costs charged to federal or state grants. Repeat Findings: Yes Recommendation: CLA recommends that the organization implement proper time and effort tracking, and designate an individual with ultimate responsibility for review of the time sheets in order to ensure that time and effort is properly tracked and documented. Views of responsible officials: There is no disagreement with the audit finding. It is noted the prior year finding included lack of maintaining proper documentation of timesheets. Through our testing in 2019, we noted support for all timesheets were accounted for. This aspect of the prior year finding has been resolved.

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