The purpose of this report is to summarize the OIG’s oversight and investigative work involving Federal student assistance programs and operations over the past 6 FYs—FY 2019 through FY 2024 and to provide the office of Federal Student Aid (FSA) with context on historical areas of weakness involving internal controls. To identify common themes across internal control vulnerabilities identified during our audit work, we evaluated recommendations made in OIG reports to address those vulnerabilities and assessed their correlation with each internal control component. And, in this effort, we analyzed complaints received by the OIG Hotline specific to Federal student assistance programs and FSA operations to identify trends and fraud indicators, summarized investigative results related to student aid fraud, and assessed their correlation to internal controls. We also took a close look at a type of fraud that accounts for a large portion of our student aid fraud investigative caseload—student aid fraud rings.
The results of this effort are intended to provide context on historical areas of weakness and vulnerabilities in FSA’s internal controls identified through the OIG’s audit work and provide insight gleaned from the OIG’s investigative work on the importance of strengthening internal controls to help mitigate the risk of fraud in the Federal student assistance programs. By strengthening its internal controls, FSA can better ensure that Federal student assistance programs are carried out as required, achieve the desired results, and that vital Federal student aid assistance reach the intended recipients.
