Finding Text
Criteria: In accordance with the Funding Certification and Agreement for the Emergency Financial Aid Grants to Students institutions must have a documented plan to distribute funds to students. Condition/context: A sample of 25 disbursements to students out of a population of 995 disbursements to students was selected. A documented plan for distribution of funds to students was requested, however the University did not have a documented plan.Our sample was not, and was not intended to be, statistically valid.Questioned costs: None.Cause/Effect: The University did not have the controls in place to formerly approve a plan for distributions of funds that was documented and circulated to the University. The lack of a documented plan for distribution of funds to students increases the risk that funds were inappropriately disbursed to students at the wrong amounts. In addition, it increases the risk that the disbursements were not equitable across the student population.Repeat finding: YesRecommendation: We recommend the University adopt a policy that is formally approved and retained indicating how HEERF student aid portion funds are to be distributed to students.Views of responsible officials and planned corrective actions: Heritage University has implemented a new policy to formally have documentation of requesting, approving, and disbursing of the HEERF student aid portion.