Finding Text
Federal Program – Student Financial Assistance Cluster – Assistance Listing Numbers 84.063, 84.007 and 84.268 – U.S. Department of Education Program Year 2023-2024
Criteria or Specific Requirement – 2 CFR 200.516(a), Paragraph 13.39(e) – Known or Likely Fraud Affecting a Federal Award
Condition – Financial aid funds were provided to six fraudulent student accounts; the issue was identified by the school and reported to the U.S. Department of Education.
Questioned Costs – $54,112
Context – During a review of the awards population for fiscal year 2024, the University identified six accounts that had duplicate contact and bank information. After further investigation, these accounts were determined to be fraudulently created. In total, $54,112 in funds were paid out. The school worked with the U.S. Department of Education’s CyberIncident Division to inform the Department of the fraudulent activity.
Effect – The University allowed refunds to be made from financial aid awarded to fraudulent student accounts resulting in questioned costs.
Cause – The University had detective rather than preventative controls in place regarding distributions of financial aid funds to repeating accounts or individuals.
Identification as a Repeat Finding, if Applicable – N/A
Recommendation – The University should implement procedures to identify duplicate contact and bank information across student accounts automatically or a process to check for duplicates prior to financial aid distribution.
Views of Responsible Officials and Planned Corrective Actions – Management agrees with the findings and has put the following in place. The Bursar will work with ITS to perform a scan of all students’ accounts for duplicate contact and banking information. If duplicates are found, students will be notified and accounts frozen until students are identified. This will be
critical before refund checks are dispersed to students every semester. The amount of
$54,112 will be paid back with the next draw down before February 28, 2025.