Finding Text
2022-001 Federal Pell Grant Over-awards Type of Finding ? Significant Deficiency and Noncompliance Student Financial Assistance Cluster: Federal Pell Grant ? CFDA 84.063 Criteria: 34 CFR 690.80 provides regulations to institutions for the recalculation of Federal Pell Grant awards when a change to a student?s expected family contribution occurs as a result of a correction of a clerical or arithmetic error under 24 CFR 690.14 or a correction based on information required as a result of verification under 34 CFR 668 subpart E. The institution should have sufficient internal controls over program compliance to detect and correct clerical errors made by the institution?s personnel when packaging aid and to identify and adjust student financial assistance awards based on changes made to a student?s Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) after initial packaging. Condition: Two students were awarded Federal Pell Grants based on incorrect expected family contributions. The students were awarded $11,340 in aggregate when the students were only eligible for $9,890 in the aggregate. This resulted in an over-award of $1,450. Questioned Costs: $1,450 Context: Out of a sample of 40 students, two students were awarded Federal Pell Grants at an incorrect amount. One of the two students awarded the incorrect amount had updated their FAFSA to reflect a change in parent for their expected family contribution and the change was not identified and reflected in the Federal Pell Grant awarded by the College. One of the two students awarded an incorrect amount had their expected family contribution updated during verification and the updated expected family contribution contained a clerical error resulting in the over-award. Effect: Student financial assistance can be awarded based on inaccurate information resulting in an under- or over-award of student financial assistance. Cause: The internal control regarding review of the financial aid packaging prior to disbursement failed to detect and correct the errors. Identification as a Repeat Finding: Not a repeat finding. Recommendation: We recommend the College refine the process of financial aid packaging to ensure the review of financial aid packaging prior to disbursement is performed at a level of detail necessary to identify clerical errors in packaging information based on review of the most recent FAFSA. Views of Responsible Officials: McPherson College agrees with the finding and the recommendations. The College is refining the review process to include a more detailed comparison of packaging information.