Finding 1174174 (2025-001)

Finding 2025-001, Repeat of 2024-002 Federal Program: U.S. Department of Education: Student Financial Aid Cluster: Federal Pell Grant Program, Assistance Listing 84.063 Criteria: The College must comply with 34 CFR Section 690.83 and 34 Section 685.301(a)(2). Condition: We tested 40 samples for eligibility, and noted that 12 of the samples had reporting errors related to the disbursement dates to Common Origination and Disbursement (COD). 11 of the errors related to Pell disbursements and one related to a disbursement of a direct loan. Cause: The College did not have a procedure in place to properly review COD disbursement dates to verify all students had the proper reporting in COD. Effect: The provisions of 34 CFR Section 690.83 and 34 Section 685.301(a)(2) were not followed and thus 11 students had incorrect reporting of one day in COD related to Pell disbursements and one student had incorrect reporting of 8 days related to a Direct Loan disbursement. Questioned Costs: There were no questioned costs associated with this finding. Recommendation: We recommend that the College review all COD disbursements and perform monthly COD reconciliations by student to verify the disbursement date matches the student account. View of responsible officials and planned corrective actions: The Director of Financial Aid will review and verify the funds that were disbursed to the students’ account match the disbursement dates in COD on the date the transfer batch report is sent to the College’s Business Office by pulling a reconciliation file from COD. The Director of Financial Aid also has in place to pull students who need Pell or Direct Loans to be disbursed by running a report out of CAMS instead of running a selection set in Powerfaids. Monthly reconciliations for both fund types will be completed every 30 days.