ED Inspector General’s Semiannual Report to Congress Highlights Areas of Improvement for Oversight of Aid Management – NASFAA
The Department of Education’s (ED) Office of Inspector General (OIG) this week released an extensive semiannual report, which identified areas of improvement being needed for heightened cash monitoring (HCM) payment methods.
The report, which summarizes the activities of OIG during a six-month period, is required by law to be submitted to Congress twice each year. While the summary determined that the Office of Federal Student Aid’s (FSA) oversight of HCM was an “effective” tool, the audit — which was published in February — also determined that FSA had inconsistent placement of schools on HCM, and did not have “adequate internal controls” to enforce HCM that would prohibit schools from drawing certain federal funds.
“FSA did not have adequate internal controls to reasonably ensure it consistently placed schools on HCM payment status when the schools submitted late annual financial statements or had composite scores that fell below the minimum financial responsibility score,” the report read.