Finding Text
Finding 2022-002: Education Stabilization Fund Reporting Federal Agency: Department of Education Program: COVID-19 Education Stabilization Fund 84.425 Criteria: In accordance with the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund reporting requirements found in the 2 CFR Part 200, separate quarterly reports for both student and institutional portions of the grant are to be completed accurately and conspicuously posted to the institution?s primary website no later than 10 days after the end of each calendar quarter. The institutional reports are to include the aggregate amounts spent and the student reports are to include the total grants distributed, estimated total number of students eligible, total number of students who received grants, and methods used to determine which students would receive funding, and in what amount. In addition, the annual report was to be filed by May 6, 2022 including the total amount expended for both student and institutional portions of the grant through December 31, 2021. Condition: The internal control system to ensure that this program was fully in compliance with all reporting requirements was not operating effectively. WCCC did not timely post the institutional quarterly report for the quarter ending December 31, 2021 to the institution?s primary website or timely post the student quarterly report for the quarter ending September 30, 2021. In addition, the amount of institutional expenditures initially reported on the December and March reports were incorrect and subsequently updated by WCCC. The annual report also incorrectly reported the number of unduplicated students who received grant funding during calendar year 2021 and overstated the amount of institutional expense and lost revenue during 2021 by $1,542,463. Cause: Procedures in place to ensure that the annual and quarterly reports were completed accurately and that the quarterly reports were timely posted to the website were not adequate. Effect: WCCC was not in compliance with all annual reporting requirements, quarterly reporting requirements, or timely public posting of the reports on the institution?s website for the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund federal funds. Repeat Finding: This is a repeat finding of 2021-002. Questioned costs: None Recommendation: We recommend that WCCC implement a procedure to ensure that all required Education Stabilization Fund reporting is completed accurately and timely, and verify that quarterly reports are posted and conspicuously appear on the institution?s website within the time frame required for both student and institutional portions of the grant. View of Responsible Officials and Planned Corrective Action: A calendar of activities has been created and shared with responsible parties to ensure that reports are created and posted to the website in a timely manner.