Finding Text
Audit Finding Reference Number Questioned Costs 2022-001 - Return of Title IV Funds $32,974 Federal Program and Specific Federal Award Identification CFDA Title and Number 84.063 Federal Pell Grant Program (PELL) 84.268 Federal Direct Student Loan (Direct) Federal Award Year June 30, 2022 Federal Agencies U. S. Department of Education Pass-Through Entity Not applicable Criteria The 2 CFR Part 200, Compliance Supplement, Part III Section (N) (3) specifies that when a student receives Title IV assistance and withdraws from an institution, the institution must determine the amount of Title IV aid earned by the student as of the withdrawal date. The difference between any amounts earned that is less than the amount disbursed must be returned to the Title IV program within the prescribed time frame. In addition, when a student does not begin attendance, all Title IV assistance must be returned. A student is considered to have not begun attendance if the institution is unable to document the student?s attendance at any class. Conditions and Context During my audit, I noted the ten (10) students out of twelve (12) students tested in which the University was unable to document the last date of attendance for each of the students? enrolled courses, document if the student participated in any academic related activity or document if the student ever attended class. No questioned cost was associated with this condition. Cause The University failed to adhere to established procedures in processing certain refunds. Questioned Costs For purposes of this condition, I have questioned costs totaling $32,974. PELL $12,058 Direct Loans 20,916 Total $32,974 Effect The University has not complied with Title IV regulations that specify a student is considered to have not begun attendance if the institution is unable to document the student?s attendance at any class. Proper attendance and/or participation in academic related activity documentation was not maintained. Repeat Finding Yes, See 2021-001. Recommendation I recommend that management adhere to established procedures to ensure attendance and/or participation in academic related activity is properly documented. Management Response It was brought to our attention that we are unable to update our third transmittal to NSC due an uploading error with Jenzabar. Once we were notified of this error, we began communicating with NSC to find an alternative route to submit the third transmittal. The third transmittal was submitted but we later learned that the file was rejected. Unfortunately, during that time, the notification of the error message was inadvertently overlooked due to the challenges we were faced with during the recovery period of Hurricane Ida. To mitigate this from occurring in the future, we have discussed changing how and when our enrollment transmittal data will be reported. Furthermore, we had participated in training and scheduled additional training opportunities with Jenzabar to create an errorless transmittal process.