REPORT DIGEST

REGIONAL OFFICE OF EDUCATION #48:
PEORIA COUNTY

FINANCIAL AUDIT (IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE
UNIFORM GUIDANCE)
FOR THE YEAR ENDED: JUNE 30, 2016

Release Date:  April 12, 2017

FINDINGS THIS AUDIT:  2

CATEGORY:  NEW -- REPEAT -- TOTAL
Category 1:  1 -- 0 -- 1
Category 2:  1 -- 0 -- 1
Category 3:  0 -- 0 -- 0
TOTAL:  2 -- 0 -- 2

FINDINGS LAST AUDIT: 0

Category 1:	Findings that are
material weaknesses in internal control
and/or a qualification on compliance
with State laws and regulations
(material noncompliance).
Category 2:	Findings that are
significant deficiencies in internal
control and noncompliance with State
laws and regulations.
Category 3:	Findings that have no
internal control issues but are in
noncompliance with State laws and
regulations.

State of Illinois, Office of the
Auditor General
FRANK J. MAUTINO, AUDITOR GENERAL

To obtain a copy of the Report contact:
Office of the Auditor General, Iles
Park Plaza, 740 E. Ash Street,
Springfield, IL 62703
(217) 782-6046 or TTY (888) 261-2887

This Report Digest and Full Report are
also available on the worldwide web at
www.auditor.illinois.gov

SYNOPSIS

• (16-1)  The Regional Office of
Education #48 did not use time and
effort documentation to distribute
employees’ salary and benefit costs.

• (16-2)  The Regional Office of
Education #48 did not have any written
procedures concerning the determination
of allowability of costs.

FINDINGS, CONCLUSIONS, AND
RECOMMENDATIONS

SALARIES AND BENEFITS NOT SUPPORTED BY
PROPER DOCUMENTATION

Employees of the Regional Office of
Education No. 48 are required to
document their time and effort working
on the Mathematics and Science
Partnership programs when only a
portion of their work is spent on these
programs.

Title 2 U.S. Code of Federal
Regulations Part 200, Uniform
Administrative Requirements, Cost
Principles, and Audit Requirements for
Federal Awards (Uniform Guidance)
requires charges for salaries and
benefits to be supported by a system of
internal control which provides
reasonable assurance that the charges
are accurate, allowable, and properly
allocated. It also requires that
records are used to support the
distribution of employees’ salary and
benefits among specific activities if
the employee only works part of the
time on a federal award program. It
further states that budget estimates
alone do not qualify as support for
salary and benefit charges to a federal
award.

The Regional Office of Education No. 48
did not use time and effort
documentation to distribute the salary
and benefit costs for two
administrative employees who partly
worked on Mathematics and Science
Partnership activities and partly on
other Regional Office activities. One
of the two employees completed
timesheets, but the timesheets only
documented the time spent on
Mathematics and Science Partnership
activities, and these timesheets were
not used in the distribution of salary
and benefit costs charged to these
programs. The salary and benefits
charged to the Mathematics and Science
Partnership programs for both of these
employees were based on an estimate of
time worked on program activities.

According to the Regional Office of
Education No. 48 officials, they were
unaware of the time and effort log
requirements for administrative
personnel.

The auditors recommended the Regional
Office should use time and effort
documentation to distribute salary and
benefit costs for employees who partly
work on Mathematics and Science
Partnership activities as well as other
activities in accordance with the
Uniform Guidance.

The Regional Office of Education No. 48
has begun using time and effort sheets
to document time worked on all federal
grants, including the Mathematics and
Science Partnership grant.

REQUIRED WRITTEN PROCEDURES NOT
IMPLEMENTED

The Uniform Administrative
Requirements, Cost Principles, and
Audit Requirements for Federal Awards
(Uniform Guidance), contained in 2 CFR
Part 200, became effective for all
federal award programs administered by
the Regional Office of Education No. 48
that were issued on or after December
26, 2014. Specifically, the Uniform
Guidance (2 CFR 200.302(b)(7)) requires
the Regional Office to have written
procedures for determining the
allowability of costs in accordance
with Subpart E-Cost Principles of the
Uniform Guidance and the terms and
conditions of the federal award.

The Regional Office of Education No. 48
did not have any written procedures
concerning the determination of
allowability of costs in accordance
with Subpart E – Cost Principles of the
Uniform Guidance and the terms and
conditions of the federal award. In
lieu of written procedures, the
Regional Office utilized informal
procedures in which each purchase made
or cost allocated to the Mathematics
and Science Partnerships was reviewed
for allowability by the Program
Coordinator. The allowability
determinations were based on the
amounts included in the budgets for the
Mathematics and Science Partnerships
approved by the Illinois State Board of
Education.

The Regional Office of Education No. 48
was unable to dedicate the time needed
to fully implement the Uniform Guidance
due to competing priorities.

The auditors recommended the Regional
Office of Education No. 48 implement
written procedures for determining the
allowability of costs in accordance
with Subpart E – Cost Principles of the
Uniform Guidance and the terms and
conditions of the federal award.


The Regional Office of Education No. 48
responded it is developing a written
procedure to determine the allowability
of costs in accordance with Subpart E –
Cost Principles of the Uniform
Guidance.

AUDITORS’ OPINION

Our auditors state the Regional Office
of Education No. 48’s financial
statements as of June 30, 2016 are
fairly stated in all material respects.

This financial report was conducted by
the firm of Doehring, Winders & Co.
LLP.

AMEEN DADA
Division Director

This report is transmitted in
accordance with Section 3-14 of the
Illinois State Auditing Act.

FRANK J. MAUTINO
Auditor General

FJM:KJM