Federal Reports

The objective of this independent evaluation was to assess the compliance of the Commission’s information security policies, procedures, and standards and guidelines with the Federal Information Security Modernization Act (FISMA).

The Office of Inspector General (OIG) contracted with the independent certified public accounting firm Harper, Rains, Knight, & Company, P.A. (HRK) to audit the Commission’s financial statements and related footnotes as of September 30, 2023, and for the year then ended.

The report presents information on independent audits with findings pertaining to the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund (HEERF) and audit resolution activities conducted by the U.S. Department of Education. Our review focused on independent audits of HEERF recipients from April 2020 through June 2023. We found that the number of independent audits with findings pertaining to HEERF and requiring resolution by the Office of Finance and Operations (OFO) increased significantly over the past few years, as did the number of audits with complex findings as determined by OFO staff. However, the number of staff assigned to audit resolution activities remained relatively constant during this same period—resulting in a more than fourfold increase in the number of audits assigned for resolution per person. OFO is now facing a significant backlog of outstanding HEERF audits requiring resolution and without immediate action, the timeliness and effectiveness of the resolution of HEERF audit findings could be reduced. We recommended that OFO assess its workload demands and evaluate the sufficiency of the staffing level assigned to HEERF audit resolution activities.

The attached report presents the results of an integrated audit of the Department of Homeland Security’s consolidated financial statements for fiscal years 2023 and 2022 and internal control over financial reporting as of September 30, 2023. This audit is required by the Chief Financial Officers Act of 1990, as amended by the Department of Homeland Security Financial Accountability Act (October 16, 2004).