Finding 36031 (2022-001)

FINDING 2022-001 ? Eligibility ? Significant Deficiency in Internal Control over Compliance: "See Schedule of Findings and Questioned Costs for chart/table" Criteria: According to 34 CFR 690.63 students may qualify for a maximum Pell award of $6,495 for an award year. The maximum amount is awarded to students with a zero Expected Family Contribution (EFC) and full-time enrollment status. Students with less than full-time enrollment or more than a zero EFC are eligible for a reduced Pell award. Condition/context: In testing eligibility, we selected a sample of 45 students out of a population of 985 who had received federal financial aid during the 2021-2022 fiscal year as identified by internal records. We compared the student's enrollment information and award disbursement information to determine whether students were eligible for all the aid received. We noted one selection where a student received a Pell award that was $200 higher than what the student was eligible for based on their EFC and cost of attendance. Questioned costs: $200. There are no other likely questioned costs. Effect: The student received an incorrect amount of Pell award and was over awarded an amount of $200, which is considered a questioned cost and was subsequently returned to the U.S. Department of Education in July 2022. Cause: This student's file included professional judgement adjustments that were made to the file in June 2022 by a new counselor in training. This resulted in many changes to the file including reducing the PLUS Loan and increasing the Pell award. There were retroactive changes to the file which made it more complicated than usual. When working with Pell awards, staff normally rely on the Pell auto-package functionality within the Colleague system. In this case, the counselor was conscious of the 30-day disbursement COD warning and entered the additional term awards manually to create the new disbursement amounts with the current date. Repeat finding: This is not a repeat finding. Recommendation: We recommend counselors always use the Pell auto-package functionality within the Colleague system. Views of responsible officials and planned corrective actions: Management agrees with the finding and recommendation and will ensure automated controls within the Colleague system are utilized for all awards and subsequent changes to award amounts.