Finding Text
Federal Program Information: Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund (?HEERF?) Student Aid Portion (ALN #84.425E) and Institutional Portion (ALN #84.425F) Criteria or Specific Requirement (Including Statutory, Regulatory or Other Citation): Annual Reporting for HEERF II and III - The HEERF Year 2 Annual Performance Report was required to be submitted to the Department of Education via the Annual Report Data Collection Tool by May 6, 2022 to cover the reporting period January 1, 2021 through December 31, 2021. The Department of Education collected information to provide the public with insight into how funds were used by institutions to support students and educators addressing the impact of COVID-19, and for helping to ensure accountability with respect to federal funds. Condition: Instances were identified where certain amounts reported within the HEERF Year 2 Annual Performance Report were inaccurate. Cause: Lack of administrative oversight with respect to amounts to be input within certain fields of the HEERF Year 2 Annual Performance Report. Effect: The College is not in compliance with HEERF reporting requirements. Questioned Costs: None. Context: The amount of Emergency Financial Aid Grants applied to satisfy student?s outstanding balance was double-counted for the period January 1, 2021 through December 31, 2021, which further resulted in the amount of grants disbursed to students through all HEERF funds to be overstated. Identification as a Repeat Finding: This is a repeat finding of prior year finding 2021-010. Recommendation: We recommend the College enhance its procedures to ensure that the appropriate amounts are reported with each field of required HEERF reports. Views of Responsible Officials and Planned Corrective Actions: When preparing the HEERF Year 2 Annual Performance Report, a question was answered incorrectly due to a misinterpretation of what information the question was requesting. The College will put in place procedures to ensure future HEERF reports are prepared correctly.