OSA Weekly Update - 10/13/2023
1. Message from Auditor Blaha
2. Update: CTAS and Earned Sick and Safe Time (ESST)
3. Released: 2023 Fire and Police State Aid Amounts
4. Avoiding Pitfall: Non-Travel Employee Meal Reimbursement
5. Job Openings
1. Message from Auditor Blaha
If your entity receives enough federal funds, you will need additional audit work. If you’re in that category, you likely have strong opinions on the threshold for when extra audit work kicks in. Here’s where you can be heard: the federal Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is considering a change to the threshold for a single audit of a federal program from $750,000 to $1,000,000. They are taking comments on that and several other changes to their guidance on grants and agreements until December 4, 2023.
You can comment on the Regulations.gov website. If you are focusing on the single audit threshold, it is in section 200.501 (pages 9 and 96 in the summary document, available for download).
Our office will also provide comment to these changes and we’d like to hear your thoughts. Email the OSA at outreach@osa.state.mn.us and we may include your ideas in our letter.
2. Update: CTAS and Earned Sick and Safe Time (ESST)
Effective January 1, 2024, Minnesota has a new law requiring employers to provide paid Earned Sick and Safe Time (ESST) to employees. Considering the new law, the Office of the State Auditor (OSA) will be updating CTAS to track the time earned and used, and to provide that information on the pay stub. The OSA is planning to release an update to CTAS that will have the required changes at the beginning of 2024. The CTAS update will only have the record-keeping requirements. For more specifics on the law and how to administer it, please visit the Department of Labor and Industry website.
3. Released: 2023 Fire and Police State Aid Amounts
The 2023 fire and police state aid amounts have been released by the Minnesota Department of Revenue and posted to the OSA website.
4. Avoiding Pitfall: Non-Travel Employee Meal Reimbursement
The cost of meals is normally a personal expense. Government employers may provide meals to their employees only when it is necessary to do so. Generally, such business necessity can be shown when an employee is in travel status.
For those government employers that permit meal reimbursement for non-travel necessary meals, a policy should be adopted setting forth what meals are eligible for reimbursement and requiring that employees seeking reimbursement provide:
- a fully itemized and dated original receipt,
- the reason the meal was necessary, and
- to the extent it constituted a “meeting” that was necessary to hold during a meal time, the identities of all persons attending the meal.
This information will help the government employer monitor employee meal reimbursements to ensure they are authorized and appropriate.
The full Avoiding Pitfall is available on the OSA website.
5. Job Openings
Local Government Auditors
The Office of the State Auditor (OSA) is hiring Local Government Auditors in Saint Paul, Rochester, Marshall, Moorhead, Duluth, and Mankato. The candidate(s) hired and new to this job classification may be eligible to receive a $5,000 hiring bonus! The deadline for applications is October 31, 2023. All job postings are available on the OSA website.
Student Workers / Interns
The OSA is hiring student workers / interns in our Saint Paul and Duluth offices. In addition to the development of technical skills, this experience provides the opportunity to enhance communication skills through professional client interaction and refine job management skills in a fast-paced environment. This work experience is CPA qualifying. The deadline for applications is October 31, 2023. The Saint Paul and Duluth postings are on the OSA website.