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The National Senior Citizens Education and Research Center(NSCERC) is one of the national SCSEP sponsors and annually receives DOL grants (now over $65 million) to provide subsidized, part-timecommunity service employment and training for about 9,000 older persons with limited incomes. We audited costs that the NSCERC claimed for reimbursement under its SCSEP grants for the period from July 1, 1996, to December 31, 1997. We questioned almost $3.7 millionof the costs NSCERC claimed for reimbursement under its grants and an additional $2.2 million of lease buyout and moving expenses it claimed in a separate indirect cost submission. Many of the findings in this report are similar to those contained in prior audits. (See Audit Resolution activities at the end of this section.). We questioned $1.9 million in direct costs. The majority of the findings resulted from the failure by NSCERC to credit the DOL grant for refunds and administrative fees it received from its insurance company. In addition, we found that NCSERC charged employee fringe benefit costs for the DOL grants based on estimates and not on actual costs. We also questioned $1.8 million of indirect costs that NSCERC proposedto be charged to the DOL grants. We recommended changes to the cost-allocation bases so that all activities are allocated their fair share of indirect costs in relation to relative benefits received.
At DOL's request, we audited the lease buyout and moving cost proposal that NSCERC submitted to recover a portion of the costs it incurred.NSCERC submitted the costs as a separate claim, rather than as a part of the indirect cost submissions, as required. One of the reasons for questioning costs was that NSCERC did not credit to DOL its share of the profit realized from the sale of a building. In addition, NSCERC:
- failed to reduce the claim by the interest earned on the cash allowance provided by the prior landlord;
- understated the excess rent charged to its cost centers;
- failed to include funds provided by the county to assist in its move; and
- included in its moving costs assets purchased and installed at its new location.
NSCERC disagreed with many of our findings.
(OA Report No. 18-00-006-03-360, issued March 29, 2000).
