Finding Text
Criteria or specific requirement: The amount of a student's Pell Grant for an academic year is based upon the payment and disbursement schedules published by the Secretary for each award year (34 CFR 690.62). The Code of Federal Regulations (34 CFR 690.80(b)(1)) states if the student’s enrollment status changes from one academic term to another within the same award year, the institution shall recalculate the Federal Pell Grant award for the new payment period taking into account any changes in the cost of attendance. Uniform Grant Guidance (2 CFR 200.303) requires nonfederal entities receiving Federal awards establish and maintain internal controls designed to reasonably ensure compliance with Federal laws, regulations, and program compliance requirements. Effective internal controls should include procedures to ensure students are awarded and disbursed the proper federal fund amounts.
Condition: During our eligibility testing, we identified that 2 out of 38 students who received Pell grants were over awarded and overpaid. The explanation provided indicated that the system packages Pell awards based on the annual award, divides it to calculate per-term disbursements, and then rounds the amounts up or down. CLA recalculated the awards using the annual award and found that the system was incorrectly rounding up, resulting in the over awards.
Questioned Costs: None
Context: During our eligibility testing of thirty-eight students who received Pell, we noted two students that were over awarded and overpaid in Pell grants.
Cause: The software that is used to auto package Pell awards has rounding rules inconsistent with that of the rules outlined in the Federal Student Aid handbook and was rounding amounts up when then it should have been rounded down.
Effect: A student received more aid than they were eligible for.
Repeat Finding: No.
Recommendation: The College changed systems since the end of this fiscal year, and we recommend the College review the auto-packaging rounding rules of its new system to ensure that the Pell award is calculated in accordance with federal regulations.
Views of responsible officials: There is no disagreement with the finding.