1209 Random Moment Sample Study (RMSS)

Georgia State Seal

Department of Human Services
Policy and Manual Management System

Index:

POL 1209

Revised:

09/15/2023

Next Review:

09/15/2025

Policy

The policy of the Georgia Department of Human Services (DHS) is to conduct Random Moment Sample Studies to assign to each benefiting funding source its share of the cost of administering DHS programs and activities.

Authority

  • The Office of Management and Budget’s Circular Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards at 2 CFR 200.

  • The United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) regulations for public assistance agencies.

References

Electronic Code of Federal Regulations

Applicability

This policy is applicable to all divisions and offices of the Georgia Department of Human Services.

Definitions

  1. Random Moment Sample Study: a statistical method of identifying the activities of a group of employees. It determines the percentage of total work time the group spends on the various activities.

  2. RMSS Application: a system programmed to randomly select a sample of employees from a universe of grouped employees. It also selects an observation date and time for each employee.

  3. Universe: the population of specific groups of employees in the DHS divisions or offices from whom the quarterly samples are randomly selected.

  4. Moment: is the point in time selected by the RMSS automated system for making an observation.

  5. RMSS Observations: e-mail notifications are sent to those employees who have been systematically assigned a moment. Selected employees are to respond via e-mail with the activity they are performing or participating in at the specified moment.

  6. Activity codes: numeric or alphabetic codes which represent work activities a specific group of employees may be engaged during work hours.

Responsibilities

The Director of the DHS Office of Financial Services (OFS) is responsible for issuing and updating procedures to implement this policy.

History

None

Evaluation

The effectiveness of the policy is evaluated by the Georgia Department of Audits and Accounts (DOAA) and by representatives of federal agencies as they perform financial management reviews. The precision and reliability of the sampling process and of the sample results are evaluated quarterly by the Cost Allocation Section of the DHS Office of Financial Services.