YELLOW SHEET Office of the State Auditor of Missouri Claire McCaskill

 

May 10, 2001

Report No. 2001-37

The following areas of concern were discovered as a result of an audit conducted by our office of the Department of Higher Education, State Guaranty Student Loan Program.

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For the year ended June 30, 2000, the State Guaranty Student Loan Program of the Department of Higher Education had approximately $720,000 in fixed assets.� Our review of the program�s fixed asset records and procedures indicated the following areas where improvements are needed: 

• The detailed fixed asset records are not complete.� The department did not record any fixed asset additions or dispositions on the detailed fixed asset listing for the year ended June 30, 2000.� 

• Property records are not maintained in a manner that allows beginning balances, additions, and dispositions for each year to be reconciled to balances at the end of each year.
  
  
• Reconciliations between fixed asset purchases recorded on the Statewide Advantage for Missouri (SAM II) expenditure reports and additions to the fixed assets records are not performed.� Performing these reconciliations would provide assurance that fixed asset items purchased are properly included in the property records and controlled.

• Some fixed assets are not properly numbered, tagged, or otherwise identified as the department�s property, and fixed asset duties are not adequately segregated.� The same individual performs the annual inventory and maintains the records of fixed assets.

In our prior audit of this program (report 2000-27), we found the department experienced difficulties implementing a revision to its default aversion billing process, which caused some loans to be billed more than once and affected the calculation of default aversion fees.� The Department of Higher Education received default aversion fees for providing default aversion activities on delinquent loans.�

We recommended the Department of Higher Education consult with the U.S. Department of Education and ensure they were properly calculating the fees.� In addition, we recommended they ensure no duplicate billing occurs.� These recommendations were implemented.

Complete Audit Report

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Missouri State Auditor's Office
moaudit@mail.auditor.state.mo.us
Webmaster: auditor@mail.auditor.state.mo.us

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