Finding Text
Assistance Listing Numbers, Federal Agency, and Program Name - Student Financial Assistance Cluster Federal Direct Student Loans Program (ALN 84.268) and Federal Pell Grant Program (ALN 84.063)
Federal Award Identification Number and Year - Various
Pass-through Entity - None
Finding Type - Significant deficiency
Repeat Finding - No
Criteria - Institutions submit Direct Loan and Pell Grant origination records and disbursement records to the COD system. (34 CFR 690.83)
Condition - The College did not have controls in place to ensure appropriate reporting to COD.
Questioned Costs - None
Identification of How Questioned Costs Were Computed - None
Context - The College was not performing reconciliations between Banner and COD to ensure appropriate reporting to COD for Pell Grants and Direct Loans.
Cause and Effect - The College experienced turnover in the financial aid department and, throughout the transition, historical procedures and controls were not followed. As a result, the control was not operating effectively to prepare and review reconciliations between Banner and COD.
Recommendation - The College should implement procedures and controls to review the amount of Pell Grant and Direct Loans reported to COD to ensure it agrees to what has been disbursed to students.
Views of Responsible Officials and Planned Corrective Actions - The College has begun training additional individuals on the reconciliation process and has updated its procedures to include what documentation needs to be retained on a monthly basis to ensure accuracy between the amount the College shows as disbursed and the amount the U.S. Department of Education shows has been disbursed.