Finding 387362 (2023-005)

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Requirement
L
Questioned Costs
-
Year
2023
Accepted
2024-03-28
Audit: 299541
Organization: Georgian Court University (NJ)
Auditor: Bdo USA PC

AI Summary

  • Core Issue: The University made errors in key line items of the FISAP, affecting compliance with federal reporting requirements.
  • Impacted Requirements: Inaccurate reporting of expenditures and student status in the FISAP could jeopardize future Title IV aid availability.
  • Recommended Follow-Up: Enhance policies and procedures to ensure accurate reporting in the FISAP and address identified issues with the reporting system.

Finding Text

Federal Program Information: Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants (ALN: 84.007) and Federal Work-Study Program (ALN: 84.033) Criteria or Specific Requirement (Including Statutory, Regulatory or Other Citation): L. Reporting – Special Reporting – The Fiscal Operations Report and Application to Participate (“FISAP”) is an electronic report submitted annual to receive funds for the campus-based programs. The institution uses the Fiscal Operations Report portion to report its expenditures in the previous award year and the Application to Participate portion to apply for the following year. Key line items containing critical information include: Part I, Identifying Information, Certification, and Warning; Part II, Application to Participate (selected sections); Part III, Fiscal Operations Report, Part IV, Fiscal Operations Report Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant (“FSEOG”) Program; Part V, Fiscal Operations Report Federal Work-Study (“FWS”) Program; and Part VI, Program Summary for Award Year. Condition: Through our testing, certain errors in key line items of the University’s FISAP were identified. Cause: Administrative oversight with respect to FISAP reporting. Effect or Potential Effect: The University is not in compliance with FISAP reporting requirements. Failure to report accurate records of expenditures for the previous award year could impact future availability of Title IV aid. Questioned Costs: None. Context: The University incorrectly reported certain required line items disclosing the uses of FWS funds during the year in Part V of the FISAP. Additionally, the total of less-than-full-time students was not properly reported in Part VI of the FISAP. Identification of Repeat Finding: No similar findings noted in the prior year. Recommendation: We recommend the University enhance its policies and procedures to ensure that key line items containing critical information are properly reported in the FISAP, in accordance with federal regulations. Views of Responsible Officials and Planned Corrective Actions: Corrections to the FISAP were made prior to the correction submission deadline date. A review in the Detail Reporting process in Powerfaids was conducted and determined that the process in Powerfaids initially reported that students who should have been included as full time were reverted to part time status if the last period of enrollment was less than fulltime. We have worked with Powerfaids to resolve this issue. Corrections were made to all Part V errors prior to the correction submission date. Payroll has been apprised that only ten percent of the JDL administrator salary can be attributed to and or drawn down from Federal Work Study funds.

Categories

Student Financial Aid Reporting

Other Findings in this Audit

Programs in Audit

ALN Program Name Expenditures
84.268 Federal Direct Student Loans $10.66M
84.063 Federal Pell Grant Program $2.50M
84.407 Transition Programs for Students with Intellectual Disabilities Into Higher Education $500,723
84.042 Trio_student Support Services $317,464
84.033 Federal Work-Study Program $163,042
84.007 Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants $125,816
16.525 Grants to Reduce Domestic Violence, Dating Violence, Sexual Assault, and Stalking on Campus $66,936
84.379 Teacher Education Assistance for College and Higher Education Grants (teach Grants) $19,331