Reports

Department of Education OIG

Federal Student Aid’s Processes for Waiving Return of Title IV Requirements, Cancelling Borrowers’ Obligation to Repay Direct Loans, and Excluding Pell Grants from Federal Pell Lifetime Usage

FSA had adequate processes for waiving R2T4 requirements, cancelling borrowers’ obligation to repay Direct Loans, and excluding Pell disbursements from Pell lifetime usage for impacted students. FSA also designed adequate processes for schools to report the number and amounts of R2T4 waivers applied.

Full Details: Oversight.gov Report Page

Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation OIG

PBGC Should Improve Its Special Financial Assistance Review Procedures

Full Details: Oversight.gov Report Page

Inspection / Evaluation | 2/24/2023

Election Assistance Commission OIG

Audit of the Help America Vote Act Grants Awarded to the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands

EAC OIG audited funds received by the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands under the Help America Vote Act, totaling $1.2 million. This included Election Security and Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act grants.

Full Details: Oversight.gov Report Page

Audit | 2/24/2023

Department of Housing and Urban Development OIG

HUD’s Communication to Homeowners About COVID-19 Policies

We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) efforts to proactively communicate information related to the coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) to homeowners with Federal Housing Administration (FHA)-insured mortgages. We initiated this work based on a U.S. Government Accountability Office report that identified helping borrowers understand the protections available to them as a key challenge and prior audit and evaluation work that found issues related to communication and COVID-19. Our audit objective was to assess HUD’s communication to homeowners with FHA...

Full Details: Oversight.gov Report Page

Department of Housing and Urban Development OIG

Review of Drawdown Levels and Publicly Available Information on the Office of Native American Programs’ CARES Act and ARP Act Block Grants

We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Native American Programs’ (ONAP) Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act and American Rescue Plan (ARP) Act to identify drawdown levels for its block grant programs and assessed information ONAP made publicly available. As of October 4, 2022, grantees had drawn $231.6 million of the $300 million in CARES Act block grant funds and $135.8 million of the $735 million in ARP Act block grant funds. A total of $19.1 million of the appropriated funds was not authorized for access to grantees because...

Full Details: Oversight.gov Report Page

Department of Education OIG

University of Cincinnati’s Use of Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund Student Aid and Institutional Grants

Our objective was to determine whether the University of Cincinnati (University) used the Student Aid (Assistance Listing Number (ALN) 84.425E) and Institutional (ALN 84.425F) portions of its Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund (HEERF) funds for allowable and intended purposes. The University spent $109.9 million (83 percent) of its total HEERF allocation of $132.8 million as of September 30, 2021. The University generally used the Student Aid ($42.1 million) and Institutional ($67.8 million) portions of its HEERF grant funds for allowable and intended purposes but needs to strengthen its...

Full Details: Oversight.gov Report Page

Audit | 1/17/2023

1.1 - Open

Require the University of Cincinnati to develop and implement a review process to prevent or detect payment errors when awarding emergency financial aid grants to students, including written policies and procedures detailing how the reviews shall be conducted and the results documented, in accordance with 2 C.F.R. section 200.303.

1.2 - Open

Require the University of Cincinnati to develop and implement written policies, procedures, and management review to ensure that its award determinations, eligibility criteria, and management decisions related to eligibility for its emergency financial aid grants to students are adequately documented and supported at the time award decisions are made, in accordance with 2 C.F.R. section 200.302(b)(3).

1.3 - Open

Require the University of Cincinnati to carefully document how its student aid eligibility criteria prioritized and continues to prioritize students with exceptional need throughout the HEERF grant performance period.

2.1 - Open

Require the University of Cincinnati to develop and implement written policies and procedures, including procedures that would identify and prevent improper revenue recognition and duplicate charges, to ensure that future calculations for charging lost revenue to its HEERF Institutional grant are reviewed for accuracy and consistency with its financial reporting policies and procedures.

2.2 - Open

Determine whether the University of Cincinnati implemented appropriate corrective actions to resolve the $797,965 in unsupported lost revenue costs it charged to its HEERF Institutional grant; and, if the corrective actions are inappropriate, require the University to either return the funds to the Department or reallocate the funds for allowable expenditures.

2.3 - Open

Determine whether the $1,916,041 that the University of Cincinnati charged to its HEERF Institutional grant for noncompetitive procurements was reasonable when compared to the costs of suitable alternatives; and, if the charges were inappropriate, require the University to either return the funds to the Department or reallocate the funds for allowable expenditures.

2.4 - Open

Require the University of Cincinnati to develop and implement written policies and procedures to ensure that procurements charged to its HEERF Institutional grant are in accordance with applicable Federal requirements; and it consistently follows its procurement policies and procedures, including maintaining sufficient documentation to support its rationale for noncompetitive procurements and the basis for and reasonableness of the contract price.

3.1 - Open

Require the University of Cincinnati to incorporate in its policies and procedures and implement the cash management requirements for minimizing the time between drawing down and disbursing Federal grant funds, and remitting interest earned in excess of $500 in accordance with 2 C.F.R. section 200.305(b).

3.2 - Open

Require the University of Cincinnati to remit $35,439 based on the TIP’s average rate of return, less no more than $320 ($500 minus the $180 already retained) for administrative expenses if applicable; and remit the actual amount of earned interest on any future advances of Federal funds, in accordance with 2 C.F.R. section 200.305(b)(9).

4.1 - Open

Require the University of Cincinnati to develop and implement written policies and procedures that incorporate the HEERF program’s reporting requirements and ensure that the expenditures in its quarterly HEERF Institutional expenditure reports are accurate and reported in the appropriate expenditure category.

Election Assistance Commission OIG

Audit of the Help America Vote Act Grants Awarded to the State of California

EAC OIG, through the independent public accounting firm of McBride, Lock & Associates, LLC, audited funds received by the State of California under the Help America Vote Act, including state matching funds and interest earned, totaling $216.3 million. This included Election Security, reissued Section 101, reissued Section 251, and Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act grants.

Full Details: Oversight.gov Report Page

Audit | 10/04/2022

1 - Closed

We recommend that the EAC require the Office perform a reconciliation of the grant activity for the Election Security, Section 251 reissued, Section 101 reissued, and CARES Act funds and ensure that all expenditures are fully disclosed, and file amended FFRs, as applicable. If the Office determines that it is unable to perform the reconciliation of the grant activity, obtain financial services to support the completion of the reconciliation.

2 - Closed

We recommend that the EAC require the Office implement procedures and training to properly fill out the required Federal Financial Reports, which reflect the uses of award funds and the interest and program income generated from those funds for all HAVA grants.

3 - Closed

We recommend that the EAC require the Office transfer into the election fund $51,012 and any related fringe benefits and indirect costs for the unsupported payroll costs cited above.

4 - Closed

We recommend that the EAC require the Office implement procedures or provide additional training to ensure that payroll costs are adequately supported with appropriate signature approvals, pay rates, and timesheets when being allocated to the HAVA grants.

5 - Closed

We recommend that the EAC require the Office perform detailed testing on the $180,350 of additional wages selected for substantive testing to determine what amount, if any, remains unsupported.

6 - Closed

We recommend that the EAC work with the Office to resolve the one remaining unsupported County reimbursement.

7 - Closed

We recommend that the EAC require the Office to transfer into the election fund any amount which remains unsupported.

8 - Closed

We recommend that the EAC require the Office to develop and implement policies and procedures and provide training to ensure adequate documentation is maintained to support the allowability of expenditures charged to the HAVA grant.

Social Security Administration OIG

The Social Security Administration’s Enumeration Services During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Objective: To determine whether the Social Security Administration (SSA) complied with its enumeration policies and procedures and had adequate controls over managing evidentiary documents submitted to support Social Security number (SSN) card applications during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Full Details: Oversight.gov Report Page

Audit | 9/30/2022

1 - Closed

Develop and periodically conduct comprehensive refresher training on topics including but not limited to:
- processing original Social Security Number (SSN) cards for individuals aged 12 or older and emphasize requirements and documentation of the in-person interview;
- acceptable forms of evidentiary documents, and
- processing new (different) and replacement SSN cards when adoption

10 - Open

Complete the privacy assessments for the WorkTrack application.

2 - Open

Update quality control reviews to include comparison of SSNAP inputs to an applicant-submitted Form SS-5 and evidentiary documents, and provide feedback to the technicians who made input errors (such as race and ethnicity) or did not use the appropriate evidentiary documents.

3 - Open

Revise enumeration policy to include clear instructions for when Form SSA-5002 is required and how to properly document the form.

4 - Closed

Update Program Operations Manual System (POMS) to provide current instructions for enumeration notices and archive outdated policy.

5 - Open

Retain enumeration notices in the Online Retrieval System for individuals with assigned SSNs.

6 - Open

Create and implement automated tools to assist staff in navigating through enumeration evidentiary document requirements.

7 - Closed

Take corrective action on all keying errors and cross-referencing errors we identified.

8 - Open

Require managers to verify that incident reports are submitted through the Personally Identifiable Information (PII) Loss Reporting Tool before they approve reimbursement to customers for replacing lost original documents.

9 - Open

Update the National Mail Handling Business Process to include standard Agency-wide mitigation steps for misdirected mail including original documents.

Department of Housing and Urban Development OIG

Fraud Risk Inventory for the Tenant- and Project-Based Rental Assistance, HOME, and Operating Fund Programs’ CARES and ARP Act Funds

In coordination with the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee, we conducted an audit to identify potential fraud schemes that could affect HUD’s pandemic funds. We reviewed the funds appropriated by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act and the American Rescue Plan (ARP) Act for the Tenant-Based Rental Assistance (TBRA), Project-Based Rental Assistance (PBRA), HOME Investment Partnerships, and Public Housing Operating Fund programs to identify the fraud risks and potential fraud schemes that they face while delivering services to the public. Our objective was to...

Full Details: Oversight.gov Report Page

Department of Housing and Urban Development OIG

Community Development Block Grant CARES Act Implementation Challenges

We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Community Development Block Grant Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act program. Our audit objective was to determine what challenges grantees faced in using program funds for activities that prepare for, prevent, or respond to the coronavirus and its impact. We used a survey questionnaire to gather feedback and insight directly from 1,047 program grantees. As of July 30, 2022, grantees had drawn more than $1.79 billion, or 36 percent, of the $4.99 billion in program funds. We performed this audit to...

Full Details: Oversight.gov Report Page

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State/Local Agency

State (State and Local Reports)

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Management Challenges

Any Recommendations

Any Open Recommendations

Reports

Federal Student Aid’s Processes for Waiving Return of Title IV Requirements, Cancelling Borrowers’ Obligation to Repay Direct Loans, and Excluding Pell Grants from Federal Pell Lifetime Usage

PBGC Should Improve Its Special Financial Assistance Review Procedures

Audit of the Help America Vote Act Grants Awarded to the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands

HUD’s Communication to Homeowners About COVID-19 Policies

Review of Drawdown Levels and Publicly Available Information on the Office of Native American Programs’ CARES Act and ARP Act Block Grants

University of Cincinnati’s Use of Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund Student Aid and Institutional Grants

Audit of the Help America Vote Act Grants Awarded to the State of California

The Social Security Administration’s Enumeration Services During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Fraud Risk Inventory for the Tenant- and Project-Based Rental Assistance, HOME, and Operating Fund Programs’ CARES and ARP Act Funds

Community Development Block Grant CARES Act Implementation Challenges

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