State of Wyoming Department of Employment Review of Staff Time
Charging Period of Review October 1, 1998 thru September 30, 2001
Report No. 21-02-300-11-001
Date Issued: March 18, 2002
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This report contains the results of our review of a hotline complaint
pertaining to inappropriate time charging in the State of Wyoming's Department
of Employment (Wyoming). Our primary objective was to determine if the
following allegations could be substantiated:
- Additional Activities to Maintain Currency (AAMC) funds carried over
from the prior fiscal year were misused to supplement BLS' base program funds.
- Research and Planning (R&P) staff were instructed to charge time
to specific Fund Ledger Codes based on predetermined percentages to ensure all
funds were spent by the end of the fiscal year.
In summary, we found (1) AAMC carryover funds were not used to
supplement BLS base programs, nor was there a violation of the Federal
appropriation law relating to the use of these funds; however, (2) the R&P
staff inappropriately charged time to BLS programs by using predetermined
percentages.
We recommend that BLS:
Follow up with Wyoming to verify that the R&P staff are recording
only the time they actually work on each program, and work with Wyoming to
utilize BLS' budget funding flexibility procedures that allow the State
grantees funding flexibility between BLS programs.
Issue a Labor Market Information (LMI) Administrative Memorandum on
the subject of state time charges. The memorandum should be issued to all
participating states and BLS regional commissioners (RC) and cover (1) subject
matters pertaining to clarifying and documenting proper staff time reporting
procedures; and (2) instructions pertaining to BLS RCs' responsibilities
relating to state time reporting.
In its response to our draft report dated February 19, 2002 (Appendix
A), BLS stated that its Dallas Regional Office will periodically follow up with
Wyoming to ensure staff is fully informed of the need to reflect time charges
appropriately and that the time charged is accurately reflected. In addition,
the Dallas Regional office will ensure that Wyoming management and financial
staffs are fully aware of the flexibility inherent in the budget variance
process. Finally, within 6 months of the issuance of the final report, BLS'
National Office will issue an LMI Administration Memorandum to address each of
the points in the recommendation to State grantees and BLS regional office
staff.
Based upon BLS' response, the status of the two recommendations in
Finding 2 are as follows:
Recommendation #1 is resolved and open based on BLS' planned
corrective action to follow up with Wyoming. To close this recommendation, BLS
needs to provide documentation to OIG summarizing the follow up actions taken.
Recommendation #2 is resolved and open based on BLS' plan to
issue an LMI Administrative Memorandum to State grantees and BLS regional
office staff. To close this recommendation, BLS needs to issue the LMI
Administrative Memorandum that addresses the points made in the recommendation.
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