FAC Explorer

Finding 551149 (2024-003)

Significant Deficiency
Requirement
N
Questioned Costs
-
Year
2024
Accepted
2025-03-31
Audit: 352065
Organization: Bergen Community College (NJ)
Auditor: Pkf O'Connor Davies LLP

AI Summary

  • Core Issue: The College failed to submit necessary data corrections and recalculate awards for one student in the verification process.
  • Impacted Requirements: This oversight leads to noncompliance with federal grant requirements under OMB guidelines.
  • Recommended Follow-Up: The College should enhance its verification processes to ensure adherence to regulations outlined in 34 CFR 668.51 through 668.61.

Finding Text

2024-003 Special Tests and Provisions – Verification – Significant Deficiency Federal Assistance Listing Numbers: 84.063, 84.007, 84.268, and 84.033 Name of Program or Cluster: Student Financial Assistance Cluster Agency: U.S. Department of Education Criteria: The College is required to submit data corrections to the central processor and recalculate awards for student aid applications that do not match the submitted verification documentation. Condition: The College did not submit data corrections to the central processor nor recalculate awards for one out of the forty students sampled for verification of applicant information for those applicants selected for verification by ED. Cause: Management oversight. Effect: Noncompliance with OMB federal grant compliance requirements. Questioned Costs: None. Repeat Finding: No. Recommendation: The College should properly follow its policies and procedures over student verification to adhere to the provisions of 34 CFR 668.51 through 668.61 for verifying applicant information for those applicants selected for verification by ED. Views of Responsible Officials: See Corrective Action Plan attached.

Corrective Action Plan

Views of Responsible Officials: The College agrees that it did not submit the data correction nor recalculated awards for one out of the forty of the students sampled. While the College does not believe that this failure rate represents a significant deficiency, we acknowledge the importance of the finding and will take mitigation steps moving forward. The Financial Aid Office brought verifications back in-house for the 23-24 award year after a five-year contract was ended with a third-party agency. To strengthen compliance efforts, our financial aid staff underwent verification training from NASFAA as well as internal training over the past two years. The Financial Aid Office will review existing procedures to identify areas of improvement, specifically, verification corrections within our SIS Colleague system and the FAFSA Partner Portals for the 24-25 and 25-26 award years. Furthermore, efforts are under way to hire additional staff to strengthen the breadth of available resources to meet compliance requirements.

Categories

Special Tests & Provisions Significant Deficiency Internal Control / Segregation of Duties

Other Findings in this Audit

  • 551141 2024-001
    Significant Deficiency
  • 551142 2024-001
    Significant Deficiency
  • 551143 2024-001
    Significant Deficiency
  • 551144 2024-001
    Significant Deficiency
  • 551145 2024-002
    Significant Deficiency
  • 551146 2024-002
    Significant Deficiency
  • 551147 2024-002
    Significant Deficiency
  • 551148 2024-002
    Significant Deficiency
  • 551150 2024-003
    Significant Deficiency
  • 551151 2024-003
    Significant Deficiency
  • 551152 2024-003
    Significant Deficiency
  • 1127583 2024-001
    Significant Deficiency
  • 1127584 2024-001
    Significant Deficiency
  • 1127585 2024-001
    Significant Deficiency
  • 1127586 2024-001
    Significant Deficiency
  • 1127587 2024-002
    Significant Deficiency
  • 1127588 2024-002
    Significant Deficiency
  • 1127589 2024-002
    Significant Deficiency
  • 1127590 2024-002
    Significant Deficiency
  • 1127591 2024-003
    Significant Deficiency
  • 1127592 2024-003
    Significant Deficiency
  • 1127593 2024-003
    Significant Deficiency
  • 1127594 2024-003
    Significant Deficiency

Programs in Audit

ALN Program Name Expenditures
84.063 Federal Pell Grant Program $20.69M
84.268 Federal Direct Student Loans $11.72M
17.268 H-1b Job Training Grants $3.68M
84.048 Career and Technical Education -- Basic Grants to States $705,301
84.033 Federal Work-Study Program $324,233
10.237 From Learning to Leading: Cultivating the Next Generation of Diverse Food and Agriculture Professionals $259,003
84.335 Child Care Access Means Parents in School $209,225
84.007 Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants $189,498
84.407 Transition Programs for Students with Intellectual Disabilities Into Higher Education $86,251
84.425 Education Stabilization Fund $60,400
47.076 Stem Education (formerly Education and Human Resources) $14,273
10.223 Hispanic Serving Institutions Education Grants $13,075
66.951 Environmental Education Grants Program $5,000