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.
For FY 2019, although the Department and FSA received unmodified opinions on their financial statements, the auditors identified the following internal control weaknesses: one material weakness in controls over the reliability of information used by management supporting the subsidy re-estimate related to student loan portfolio costs; and two significant deficiencies, one involving information technology controls and the second involving controls over monitoring of certain service organizations hosting and administering Department information technology systems. Ineffective controls impact management’s ability to prevent, detect, and correct errors and can increase the risk of unauthorized access to the Department’s systems. In addition, the auditors identified one instance of noncompliance involving a provision of the Debt Collection Improvement Act of 1996, as amended.
We made 14 recommendations to address the issues identified.
Information Technology Security
See other OIG financial statement audit reports.