FY 2024 Financial Statement Audit – U.S. Department of Education

The Chief Financial Officers Act of 1990 requires the Inspector General to audit the agency’s financial statements each year, which is intended to help improve an agency’s financial management and controls over financial reporting. The auditors issued a disclaimer of opinion on the FY 2024 consolidated financial statement of the U.S. Department of Education (Department), as they were not able to obtain sufficient appropriate audit evidence to provide a basis for an audit opinion because of errors identified in the underlying data used to calculate the subsidy re-estimates for the Department’s direct loan and loan guaranty programs. In addition, in the Report on Internal Control over Financial Reporting, the auditors identified one material weakness and two significant deficiencies in internal control over financial reporting. In the Report on Compliance and Other Matters, the auditors reported two instances of noncompliance that were required to be reported under Government Auditing Standards or OMB Bulletin No. 24-02. Nineteen recommendations were made to the Department to address the internal control and compliance findings. (See page 90 for the audit report).