Finding Text
Finding 2022-001 Federal program: Education Stabilization Fund -Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund (HEERF): COVID-19 CARES Act- Student Aid Portion AL #: 84.425E Award Year: 2021/2022 Type of finding: Deficiency and Noncompliance Compliance requirement: Reporting - Special Reporting Criteria: Under 2 CFR 200.328 and 200.329, Universities must publicly post certain information relating to Student Aid awards on their website no later than 30 days after award, and update that information within 10 days after the end of every calendar quarter by posting a new report. Condition: Due to the timing of the prior year finding being identified, the award notification report, and first and second quarter reports for FY 2022 were also not posted timely as required. No issues were noted with the accuracy of the disclosure, but the timing was past the required due date. Questioned costs: None Context: The Student Aid grant awards were not reported on the University?s website on a timely basis for the first and second quarters of FY22. Cause: The University established reporting processes according to the compliance supplement. However, in the process of assigning responsibility for each reporting requirement, this requirement of updating the HEERF award disclosures quarterly was missed. Effect: The HEERF Student Aid award information was not reported publicly on the University?s website. As a result, students and other interested parties did not have readily presented access to this data. Repeat finding: Yes ? 2021-001. The finding is limited to the HEERF Student Aid first and second quarter reporting of FY22. Recommendations: We recommend that the University have controls in place to ensure that all required reporting is performed timely. Views of responsible officials: HEERF was issued to institutions of higher education in the spring of 2020 to support students and campus operations in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Quarterly reporting requirements were later established by the Department of Education. Student Aid grant award reporting was overlooked by the responsible official due to confusion of duty with the emergency relief program. When the prior-year finding was identified, a system of controls was established to ensure future compliance and timely reporting. Specifically, the responsible reporting officials for the institutional and student portions of HEERF funding combined report information into a single web posting request prior to the deadline each quarter. This single request provided another check for the posting official to confirm the quarterly report was comprehensive.