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 Inspector General is also required to audit the Federal Student Aid (FSA) office’s financial statements, as it is a Performance-Based Organization.
For FY 2023, the independent auditor issued a disclaimer of opinion as it was not able to obtain sufficient appropriate audit evidence to provide a basis for an audit opinion because of unresolved errors identified in the underlying data used to calculate the subsidy re-estimates for the FSA’s direct loan and loan guaranty programs. The auditors identified one material weakness related to the Direct and FFEL student loan portfolios, and two significant deficiencies related to information technology controls and entity-level controls. See page 168 for the audit.
The auditors made more than 20 recommendations to address the issues identified.
Read other OIG reports on financial statements.