Finding Text
Criteria: 34 CFR 685.300(b)(5) [The school must] on a monthly basis, reconcile institutional records with Direct Loan funds received from the Secretary and Direct Loan disbursement records submitted to and accepted by the Secretary. Condition: Four of the monthly direct loan reconciliations were selected for testing. While all of the reconciliations were performed, we noted one month (April 2022) was reconciled on June 21, 2022 which is more than 30 days after the month-end. Context: The deficiency was discovered during the audit testing of direct loan reconciliations. Effect: The University should reconcile their internal records to those maintained by the department of education on a monthly basis. One month was not reconciled timely. Cause: The month in question, April 2022, should have been reconciled in May 2022. May 2022 was a busy time at the University with financial aid disbursements and several vacations for key personnel. While planned, the scheduled reconciliation had to be rescheduled and was not performed until the next month. Recommendation: We noted management has utilized calendar reminders to ensure the reconciliations are performed timely. We recommend these reminders be reviewed periodically to account for busy periods and any time-off that may conflict with the reconciliations. We also recommend management consider cross-training personnel to provide some redundancy should scheduling not allow for timely reconciliations with regular personnel.