Finding Text
FINDING 2025-002 Federal Program Information: Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants (ALN: 84.007), Federal Work-Study Program (ALN: 84.033), Federal Pell Grant Program (ALN: 84.063), Federal Direct Student Loan Program (ALN: 84.268) Criteria or Specific Requirement (Including Statutory, Regulatory or Other Citation): N. Special Test and Provisions – Verification - An institution shall require an applicant selected for verification to submit acceptable documentation that will verify or update the following information used to determine the applicant's expected family contribution: adjusted gross income, U.S. income tax paid, aggregate number of family members in the household, number of family members in the household who are enrolled in as at least half-time students in postsecondary educational institutions if that number is greater than one and untaxed income subject to U.S. income tax reporting requirements in the base year which is included on the tax return form, excluding information contained on schedules appended to such forms. Untaxed income and benefits include: Social Security benefits if the institution has reason to believe that those benefits were received and were not reported or were not correctly reported; child support if the institution has reason to believe child support was received; U.S. income tax deductions for a payment made to an individual retirement account or Keough account; interest on tax-free bond; foreign income excluded from U.S. income taxation if the institution has reason to believe that foreign income was received; and all other untaxed income subject to U.S. income tax reporting requirements in the base year included on the tax return form, excluding information contained on schedules appended to such forms (34 CFR section 668.56). Condition: For a certain student selected for verification, the information required to be verified did not match the underlying supporting documentation. In addition, the University was unable to provide a complete listing of students selected for verification. Cause: Administrative oversight and insufficient internal control. Effect: The University was not in compliance with verification compliance requirements. Questioned Costs: None. Context: For 1 of 6 students selected for verification testing, the University did not perform appropriate verification procedures. Identification of Repeat Finding: This is a repeat of prior year finding 2024-002. Recommendation: We recommend the University enhance its procedures and internal controls to ensure that the appropriate verification procedures are performed for all students who are selected for verification unless excluded by the federal regulations. Views of Responsible Officials and Planned Corrective Actions: We have implemented a new Quality Assurance Measure for Auditing all students selected for verification. The process begins with the FA advisor team. They are responsible for ensuring all documents have been received and verification has been completed. In Colleague the advisor will then mark the file is ready for audit. Chad Wick, Director, Financial aid or Brandon Rhone, Systems Administrator, will review all documents and verification steps and then update the verification status to verified and the communication code to audited.