Finding Text
CFDA Number: 84.425E Education Stabilization Fund (COVID 19 ? Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund ? Student Relief) Criteria: Institutions must demonstrate that costs incurred are allowable under the relevant statutory provisions and consistent with the purpose of the Education Stabilization Fund (ESF). Institutions must also post quarterly reports timely and accurately as it relates to expenditures under the HEERF III (a)(1) Student Aid Portion. Condition: For the February and April 2022 distributions to students (related to the Spring 2022 semester), the total amount distributed exceeded the planned amount for distribution and the allocation to the eligible students did not follow the pre-determined plan which was posted publicly to the College?s website. Cause: For the February and April 2022 distributions to students, there were data input errors in assigning the dollar amount to be distributed to each student based on their EFC category. This caused a change in the amount to be distributed per student from the original pre-determined plan. Effect: The effect of the condition was an over-award to 871 students (868 of the 2,894 students in the February 2022 distribution and 3 of the 56 students in the April 2022 distribution) in the amount of $135,436 outside of the pre-determined plan which was publicly posted to the College?s website. The amount of the February and April 2022 distributions per student were not supported by the College?s plan for distribution and did not align with the plan posted publicly to the College?s website. Questioned Costs: $135,436. This was computed as the amount of the February and April 2022 distributions that were over the planned disbursement amount due to the data input error. Prevalence: The data input error was isolated to the February and April 2022 distributions. Reports by student of the previous distributions for the Fall 2021 semester and the subsequent distributions for the Fall 2022 semester were reviewed and a comparison was performed of the actual distribution per student to the planned distribution. No other instances of similar errors were identified. Recommendation: The College should enhance their review procedures. The College should have a preventative review control in place to ensure distributions are input into the system correctly and in line with the intended plan before distributing the funds to the students. The College should also have a detective control in place to review the distribution after to verify it is distributed as intended by a person separate from the one processing the distribution.