Federal Reports

The U.S. Department of Education (Department) is responsible for minimizing the risk that Federal funds will be lost when an Institution of Higher Education (IHE) stops participating in the programs authorized by Title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended. When an IHE stops participating in Title IV programs, either voluntarily or involuntarily (due to closure or other circumstances), the closeout procedures it is required to perform and the liability assessment processes Federal Student Aid (FSA) performs, identify any program funds the IHE is required to return to the Department. If the required closeout procedures are not completed, an alternative assessment is conducted by FSA to determine whether the IHE must return program funds to the Department. We performed our inspection to determine the results of the Department’s processes for assessing and recouping liabilities from IHEs that closed from October 1, 2020, through September 30, 2023. We found that the Department has processes in place for assessing and recouping liabilities from IHEs that close. Based on these processes FSA’s School Participation Divisions (SPD) determined that as of March 2024, 47 of the 161 IHEs that closed between October 1, 2020, and September 30, 2023, should repay the Department a total of $34,593,135 in Title IV program funds. These processes also led to FSA’s SPDs assessing liabilities totaling $30,507,138 during the period we reviewed for 13 of the 19 closed IHEs we selected for review. The Department’s Office of Finance and Operations recouped a total of $812,998 of those liabilities from 8 of the 13 IHEs. However, despite these efforts, we found that five of the seven sampled SPDs that oversee IHEs and that we included in our review did not always follow the established processes to timely determine whether liabilities should be assessed against IHEs that closed. These processes are necessary to timely determine closed schools’ liabilities and to make those determinations in a manner consistent with established guidance. We did not identify any issues with the Department’s actions to recoup liabilities from the IHEs we sampled in our review.

This letter responds to the Government Charge Card Abuse Prevention Act of 2012 (Charge Card Act) reporting requirement for the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for fiscal year 2025.

We performed an audit of MidFirst’s compliance with Federal Housing Administration (FHA) requirements for foreclosures that started in 2022.  Pursuant to the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act (CARES Act), as extended by the Secretary, from March 18, 2020, through July 31, 2021, there was a pause on new and ongoing foreclosures for FHA single‐family mortgages for homes that remained occupied. We selected MidFirst Bank because it was among the first servicers to resume initiating foreclosures after the moratorium ended with a foreclosure rate above 1 percent.  Our audit objective was to determine whether MidFirst Bank complied with FHA’s requirements for loss mitigation before initiating and continuing foreclosure.

 MidFirst Bank did not follow FHA’s requirements for more than 14 percent of its foreclosures in 2022.  Based on a statistically valid sample drawn from a universe of 7,363 FHA-insured loans totaling $890 million, MidFirst did not complete the required loss mitigation activities before initiating or continuing foreclosure for an estimated 1,038 loans.  

Williams, Adley & Company – DC, LLP (Williams Adley), under contract with the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General, issued an Independent Accountant’s Review Report on the United States Coast Guard (Coast Guard) Detailed Accounting Report for Drug Control Funds. Coast Guard’s management prepared the Table of FY 2024 Drug Control Obligations and related assertions to comply with the requirements of the ONDCP Circular, National Drug Control Program Agency Compliance Reviews, dated September 9, 2021.

Williams, Adley & Company – DC, LLP (Williams Adley), under contract with the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General, issued an Independent Accountant’s Review Report on the United States Coast Guard’s (Coast Guard) FY 2024 Drug Control Budget Formulation Compliance Report. Coast Guard’s management prepared the Budget Formulation Compliance Report and the related assertions to comply with the requirements of the ONDCP Circular, National Drug Control Program Agency Compliance Reviews, dated September 9, 2021.

The U.S. AbilityOne Commission OIG has received zero complaints against OIG employees in the past five years.  Therefore, zero complaints contained an element of sexual harassment.