Finding 65274 (2022-002)

Significant Deficiency
Requirement
N
Questioned Costs
$1
Year
2022
Accepted
2023-03-05

AI Summary

  • Core Issue: A significant deficiency in internal controls led to a student being under awarded $1,000 in their Unsubsidized Stafford Loan.
  • Impacted Requirements: Compliance with 34 CFR 685.203(a) regarding maximum loan amounts and 2 CFR 200.303 for maintaining internal controls.
  • Recommended Follow-Up: The College should review and improve its procedures for manually entering loan request information to prevent future errors.

Finding Text

U.S. Department of Education 2022-002: Student Eligibility and Awarding Federal Agency: Department of Education Federal Program Name: Student Financial Assistance Cluster Assistance Listing Number: 84.268 ? Federal Direct Student Loans Federal Award Identification Number and Year: P268K221182- 2022 Award Period: July 1, 2021 through June 30, 2022 Type of Finding: Significant Deficiency in Internal Control over Compliance Criteria: The Code of Federal Regulations, 34 CFR 685.203(a) outline the maximum subsidized loan amounts for students based on their dependency status, year of education, and other factors. In addition, 2 CFR 200.303, nonfederal entities receiving federal awards are required to establish and maintain internal controls designed to reasonably ensure compliance with federal laws, regulations and program compliance requirements. Condition: During our testing, we noted 1 instance out of 40 students tested at the College where the Unsubsidized Stafford Loan awarded to the student was less than the maximum amount they were eligible for. Questioned Costs: For the instances identified, each student was under awarded $1,000. Context: The College awarded $751,965 in Direct Loans during the year. Cause: Typographical error based on the department staff member using the values on the student?s loan request form. Effect: For the instance identified, the student was under awarded the unsubsidized portion of the Stafford Loan. Repeat Finding: This was not a finding in the prior year. Recommendation: We recommend the College to evaluate its procedures related to the manual input of information from the student loan request. Views of responsible officials: Management concurs with the finding and plans to correct the finding.

Corrective Action Plan

U.S. Department of Education 2022-002: Student Financial Assistance Cluster ? Student Eligibility and Awarding ? Assistance Listing Number: 84.268 Recommendation: We recommend the College to evaluate its procedures related to the manual input of information from the student loan request. Explanation of disagreement with audit finding: There is no disagreement with the audit finding. Action taken in response to finding: This issue was discovered during the audit process, and we performed the following activities in response: ? We consulted with the auditing team?s national resource about the proper way to correct this award. Implemented by August 2022. ? Following their guidance, we corrected the student?s awards so that the appropriate amount of sub and unsub were in place and then re-ran her R2T4 calculation to make sure everything was correct in our system and on COD. Implemented by September 2022 ? We conducted a review of our other Direct Loan awards, and found that this incident was an isolated manual mistake, not a systemic one. Implemented by August 2022 ? Although the person responsible for this error is no longer employed in the financial aid department, we have done training with the current Direct Loan coordinator to reduce the likelihood of this mistake in the future. Implemented by August 2022 ? We modified the Direct Loan procedure log to include a reminder about this regulation. Implemented by August 2022 Name(s) of the contact person(s) responsible for corrective action: Alysa Borelli, Dean of Enrollment and Student Services. Planned completion date for corrective action plan: The corrective action plan was implemented by September 2022.

Categories

Questioned Costs Matching / Level of Effort / Earmarking Student Financial Aid Eligibility Significant Deficiency

Other Findings in this Audit

  • 21441 2022-001
    Significant Deficiency Repeat
  • 21442 2022-004
    Significant Deficiency
  • 21443 2022-001
    Significant Deficiency Repeat
  • 21444 2022-003
    Significant Deficiency
  • 21445 2022-004
    Significant Deficiency
  • 65268 2022-001
    Significant Deficiency Repeat
  • 65269 2022-003
    Significant Deficiency
  • 65270 2022-004
    Significant Deficiency
  • 65271 2022-001
    Significant Deficiency Repeat
  • 65272 2022-004
    Significant Deficiency
  • 65273 2022-001
    Significant Deficiency Repeat
  • 65275 2022-004
    Significant Deficiency
  • 65276 2022-005
    Material Weakness
  • 597883 2022-001
    Significant Deficiency Repeat
  • 597884 2022-004
    Significant Deficiency
  • 597885 2022-001
    Significant Deficiency Repeat
  • 597886 2022-003
    Significant Deficiency
  • 597887 2022-004
    Significant Deficiency
  • 641710 2022-001
    Significant Deficiency Repeat
  • 641711 2022-003
    Significant Deficiency
  • 641712 2022-004
    Significant Deficiency
  • 641713 2022-001
    Significant Deficiency Repeat
  • 641714 2022-004
    Significant Deficiency
  • 641715 2022-001
    Significant Deficiency Repeat
  • 641716 2022-002
    Significant Deficiency
  • 641717 2022-004
    Significant Deficiency
  • 641718 2022-005
    Material Weakness

Programs in Audit

ALN Program Name Expenditures
84.063 Pell Grant $6.76M
84.425 Covid-19 Heerf - Student Aid $6.07M
84.425 Covid-19 Heerf - Institutional $5.27M
84.268 William D. Ford Direct Loan Program $751,965
84.048 Perkins Title I-C (basic Grants to States) $405,392
84.007 Supplemental Educational Opportunities Grant (seog) $184,584
84.033 Federal Work Study (fws) $168,340
12.600 California Advanced Defense Ecosystems & National Consortia Effort (cadence) $156,646
93.658 Foster-Kinship Care Education $78,451
12.617 California Advances Supply Chain Analysis & Diversification Effort (cascade) $64,635
93.558 Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (tanf) $62,782
10.558 Child Care Food Program $31,974
84.063 Student Financial Aid Administrative Allowance $8,534
64.028 Veteran Assistance Title 38 $1,650