Finding 12538 (2022-002)

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Requirement
N
Questioned Costs
-
Year
2022
Accepted
2023-03-30
Audit: 17240
Organization: California College of the Arts (CA)

AI Summary

  • Core Issue: The College failed to conduct monthly reconciliations for Direct Loans, completing only 8 out of the required 12 for the fiscal year.
  • Impacted Requirements: This violates 34 CFR 685.300(b)(5), which mandates monthly reconciliations of institutional records with Direct Loan funds.
  • Recommended Follow-Up: The College should implement a monthly reconciliation process to promptly identify and resolve any discrepancies.

Finding Text

2022-002 FEDERAL DIRECT LOAN RECONCILIATIONS Federal Assistance Listing Number: 84.268 Criteria According to 34 CFR 685.300(b)(5), the College must, on a monthly basis, reconcile institutional records with Direct Loan funds received from the Secretary and Direct Loan disbursement records submitted to and accepted by the Secretary. Observation/Condition/Context The College did not perform the monthly reconciliations over direct loans for all months out of the fiscal year. We requested a selection of reconciliations out of the 12 required and were informed that only 8 reconciliations were performed. Questioned Cost There were no questioned costs related to this finding. Cause/Effect The reconciliations were not performed due to a transition of responsible parties over the reconciliations. Direct loan discrepancies may not have been identified and resolved in a timely manner due to the lack of monthly reconciliations. Recommendation We recommend that the College perform direct loan reconciliations monthly to ensure that discrepancies are properly addressed in a timely manner.

Corrective Action Plan

2022-002 FEDERAL DIRECT LOAN RECONCILIATIONS Federal Assistance Listing Number: 84.268 Criteria According to 34 CFR 685.300(b)(5), the College must, on a monthly basis, reconcile institutional records with Direct Loan funds received from the Secretary and Direct Loan disbursement records submitted to and accepted by the Secretary. Observation/Condition/Context The College did not perform the monthly reconciliations over direct loans for all months out of the fiscal year. We requested a selection of reconciliations out of the 12 required and were informed that only 8 reconciliations were performed. Questioned Cost There were no questioned costs related to this finding. Cause/Effect The reconciliations were not performed due to a transition of responsible parties over the reconciliations. Direct loan discrepancies may not have been identified and resolved in a timely manner due to the lack of monthly reconciliations. Recommendation We recommend that the College perform direct loan reconciliations monthly to ensure that discrepancies are properly addressed in a timely manner. Planned Corrective Action Effective with the 2021/2022 Direct Loan reconciliations for February 2022 (performed in March 2022), a revised process was implemented to make the process more efficient and accurate. Along with this the Finance Manager took on the responsibility to execute the process monthly and share the results with other relevant teams by the 2nd week of the following month. Since this time the process has continued to be refined and all reconciliations (student level detail and summary) have been completed and shared timely for the remaining portion of award year 2021/2022 and for 2022/2023 through February 2023. Now that the process is firmly in place and effective, cross-training with others in the Business office will take place and be completed by the end of April 2023 to ensure an adequate depth of resources are available to maintain timeliness and accuracy of the reconciliations. Implementation Date The revised process was implemented in March 2022 and was refined since to ensure effectiveness and sustainability of the process going forward. Additional training to add to the depth of resources to perform the process will be completed by the end of April 2023. Responsible Personnel Yvonne Rincon, Director of Accounting Contact Information Email: yrincon@cca.edu

Categories

Student Financial Aid Matching / Level of Effort / Earmarking

Other Findings in this Audit

Programs in Audit

ALN Program Name Expenditures
84.425 Education Stabilization Fund $1.77M
84.268 Federal Direct Student Loans $1.70M
84.063 Federal Pell Grant Program $1.52M
84.038 Federal Perkins Loan Program - Outstanding Loans As of June 30, 2021 $449,520
84.033 Federal Work-Study Program $242,598
84.007 Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants $155,297
47.041 Engineering $34,686