Finding 1180978 (2025-002)

Material Weakness Repeat Finding
Requirement
N
Questioned Costs
-
Year
2025
Accepted
2026-03-18
Audit: 392509
Organization: Bergen Community College (NJ)

AI Summary

  • Core Issue: The College failed to update student enrollment statuses on the NSLDS website for two out of sixty students in a timely manner.
  • Impacted Requirements: This noncompliance violates federal grant requirements for accurate and timely reporting of enrollment changes.
  • Recommended Follow-up: The College should enhance its policies and procedures to ensure all status changes are reported accurately and within the 60-day timeframe.

Finding Text

2025-001 Special Tests and Provisions – Enrollment Reporting – Significant Deficiency Federal Assistance Listing Numbers: 84.063, 84.007, 84.268, and 84.033 Name of Program or Cluster: Student Financial Assistance Cluster Agency: U.S. Department of Education Criteria: Bergen Community College (the “College") is required to update students’ statuses on the National Student Loans Data System (“NSLDS”) website if they graduate, withdraw or have an increase/decrease in attendance level during the year within 60 days of the date the College becomes aware of the change in enrollment status. Condition: The College did not submit an accurate and/or timely status change notification to the NSLDS website for two out of sixty students sampled from a total population of students who graduated, withdrew, or had an increase/decrease in attendance level during the year. Cause: Management oversight. Effect: Noncompliance with OMB federal grant compliance requirements. Questioned Costs: None. Repeat Finding: Yes. Recommendation: The College should properly follow its policies and procedures over enrollment reporting to ensure that all status changes are submitted to the NSLDS website accurately and within the required timeframe. Views of Responsible Officials: See Corrective Action Plan attached.

Corrective Action Plan

Views of Responsible Officials: After consultation with the College’s Information Technology department, management determined that the file was processed and submitted on time. However, the NSLDS discrepancy resulted from a data processing issue during the March 2025 enrollment status download. Specifically, while the NSLDS file was being generated, staff from another office were simultaneously accessing the same student records. These concurrent activities caused the affected students’ enrollment statuses to default to data from a prior download, resulting in incorrect reporting for the two records of the sixty examined. Corrective action: The College has revised its NSLDS data reporting process to prevent a recurrence of concurrent access. A static, saved population list is now used to generate NSLDS enrollment status downloads, eliminating conflicts caused by concurrent system access. This change ensures that enrollment status data is not impacted and remains consistent at the time of submission. Management believes this corrective action adequately addresses the identified issue, strengthens controls, mitigate this issue for future status change reports, and allows for accurate submission within the required 60-day timeframe.

Categories

Special Tests & Provisions Student Financial Aid Reporting Significant Deficiency Matching / Level of Effort / Earmarking Internal Control / Segregation of Duties

Other Findings in this Audit

  • 1180975 2025-002
    Material Weakness Repeat
  • 1180976 2025-002
    Material Weakness Repeat
  • 1180977 2025-002
    Material Weakness Repeat
  • 1180979 2025-003
    Material Weakness Repeat
  • 1180980 2025-003
    Material Weakness Repeat
  • 1180981 2025-003
    Material Weakness Repeat
  • 1180982 2025-003
    Material Weakness Repeat

Programs in Audit

ALN Program Name Expenditures
84.063 FEDERAL PELL GRANT PROGRAM $26.73M
84.268 FEDERAL DIRECT STUDENT LOANS $6.17M
84.048 CAREER AND TECHNICAL EDUCATION -- BASIC GRANTS TO STATES $856,032
10.237 FROM LEARNING TO LEADING: CULTIVATING THE NEXT GENERATION OF DIVERSE FOOD AND AGRICULTURE PROFESSIONALS $671,644
84.007 FEDERAL SUPPLEMENTAL EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITY GRANTS $582,840
84.002 ADULT EDUCATION - BASIC GRANTS TO STATES $467,077
84.033 FEDERAL WORK-STUDY PROGRAM $387,724
84.031 HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONAL AID $267,350
10.223 HISPANIC SERVING INSTITUTIONS EDUCATION GRANTS $177,741
84.407 TRANSITION PROGRAMS FOR STUDENTS WITH INTELLECTUAL DISABILITIES INTO HIGHER EDUCATION $91,088
66.951 ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION GRANTS PROGRAM $65,723
84.335 CHILD CARE ACCESS MEANS PARENTS IN SCHOOL $50,796
59.059 CONGRESSIONAL GRANTS $50,163
17.268 H-1B JOB TRAINING GRANTS $19,527
47.076 STEM EDUCATION (FORMERLY EDUCATION AND HUMAN RESOURCES) $6,697