Our audit objectives were to determine whether the University of Southern California completed verification of applicant data in accordance with Federal requirements and accurately reported verification results to Federal Student Aid.
The University of Southern California did not always complete verification in accordance with Federal requirements and did not accurately report verification results to FSA.
We made five recommendations, including that that the school to correct the $22,530 in improper payments, revise its quality control process to ensure that students selected for verification are a separate category of students for sample selection purposes; and review its records for the 1,474 students who received a Pell disbursement and whose applications were selected for verification for award year 2017–2018 but were not included in our sample, determine whether the school has records to support that verification of applicant data was completed in accordance with Federal requirements, correct any improper payments, and ensure that verification results were reported to FSA.
Oversight and Monitoring—Grantees
Student Financial Assistance Programs
See other OIG reports involving verification.