Finding 504671 (2024-001)

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Requirement
L
Questioned Costs
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Year
2024
Accepted
2024-11-05
Audit: 327263
Organization: Rhodes College (TN)

AI Summary

  • Core Issue: The College's records of federal fund disbursement do not match what was reported to the COD system.
  • Impacted Requirements: Accurate reporting of disbursement data is essential for compliance with federal regulations.
  • Recommended Follow-Up: The College should enhance its review process for the new financial aid system to ensure data accuracy in future reports.

Finding Text

Finding No. 2024-001 Identification of the Federal Program: Student Financial Aid Cluster, Assistance Listing # 84.007, 84.033, 84.063, 84.268 Compliance Requirement: Reporting Condition: The date of disbursement of federal funds per the College's records did not agree to date of disbursement reported to the Common Origination and Disbursement (“COD”) system. Criteria: Disbursement data reported to the COD system should agree to the institution's records. Cause: Subsequent to the implementation of a new financial aid system, the College did not have all appropriate safeguards in place to ensure accurate reporting of disbursement data to the COD system. Context: The College transitioned to a new financial aid system during the fiscal year and had not reviewed all types of students to identify errors in reporting. As a result, the College’s records did not support the disbursement data reported to the COD system for five out of twenty-five sampled students. Effect: The College did not report disbursement data to the COD system accurately. Recommendation: The College should continue to review the process for reporting under the new financial aid system to ensure accurate reporting of disbursement data to the COD system. Management Response: The College concurs with this finding. Corrective Action Plan: See enclosed management's corrective action plan.

Corrective Action Plan

Finding No. 2024-001 Recommendation: The College should continue to review the process for reporting under the new financial aid system to ensure accurate reporting of disbursement data to the COD system. Management Response: The College concurs with the finding. College Corrective Plan: The College scheduled automated integrations to be set ovemight to transfer disbursement data between PowerFaids and WorkDay; unfortunately, the portion of the automation which transferred the information to Workday was set after midnight resulting in dates recorded in Workday as the next business day, a one- to-three day discrepancy. Rhodes will set the scheduled processes and integrations to complete prior to midnight of the scheduled day, which will record the days accurately with the same date. In addition, financial aid staff will systematically review Disbursement error reports, Integration error reports, COD Reject reports and other reports out of both PowerFAIDS and WorkDay systems that will alert our staff of possible date errors for immediate resolution. As part of the implementation of two new financial aid systems, the staff will continue to develop reports and monitor processes to address issues as they present themselves. Members of the Financial Aid Office, Information Services and Enrollment Services will meet periodically to review all current process and discuss ideas to make the delivery of aid more efficient as we move forward.

Categories

Reporting

Other Findings in this Audit

Programs in Audit

ALN Program Name Expenditures
84.268 Federal Direct Student Loans $5.28M
84.063 Federal Pell Grant Program $1.75M
84.033 Federal Work-Study Program $322,785
84.007 Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants $201,160
47.U01 Ipa: Program Director for Cellular Dynamics and Function Cluster $150,294
47.083 Integrative Activities $132,012
93.137 Community Programs to Improve Minority Health Grant Program $92,818
47.076 Stem Education (formerly Education and Human Resources) $90,546
93.859 Biomedical Research and Research Training $67,375
43.U01 Stsci, Aura – Q-3d: Imaging Spectroscopy $50,252
43.U02 Stsci, Aura - Witnessing the Circumgalactic Medium Formation $43,566
16.525 Grants to Reduce Domestic Violence, Dating Violence, Sexual Assault, and Stalking on Campus $41,543
43.U04 Stsci, Aura - Zooming Into the Monster's Mouth $32,953
93.912 Rural Health Care Services Outreach, Rural Health Network Development and Small Health Care Provider Quality Improvement $25,224
47.075 Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences $24,687
43.U03 NASA Vanderbilt Subaward-the Tennessee Space Grant Consortiu $15,000
45.162 Promotion of the Humanities Teaching and Learning Resources and Curriculum Development $10,000
47.074 Biological Sciences $4,366
43.001 Science $1,098