Three strikes for the U.S. Dept. of Education
The U.S. Department of Education has failed its audit for the third year in a row due to accounting errors, reports the department’s Office of Inspector General.
The auditors identified errors “in the underlying data used to calculate the subsidy re-estimates for the Department’s direct loan and loan guaranty programs,” summarizes the Office of Inspector General. The auditors identified one material weakness related to the department’s student loan model, two significant deficiencies in internal control over financial reporting, and two instances of noncompliance that were required to be reported. Nineteen recommendations were made to address the issues identified.
The previous failed audits had also identified significant deficiencies in internal control over financial reporting and errors in the underlying data used to calculate the subsidy re-estimates for the department’s direct loan and loan guaranty programs.
“After two consecutive failed audits, it could only go up for [U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel] Cardona, and yet he’s found a way to dig the hole even deeper, failing to live up to his promise to ‘revamp’ and address the audit failures,” said U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx, chairwoman of the Education and the Workforce Committee, in a statement.
“Instead of focusing energy and time on improving operations and student outcomes at every level, the Education Department in the Biden-Harris era has poured its resources into student loan schemes and fulfilling every whim of the teachers unions.”
The annual audit of the agency’s financial statements is “intended to help improve an agency’s financial management and controls over financial reporting.” The U.S. Department of Education is responsible for managing more than $1 trillion in taxpayer money and yet “can’t account for its own books,” points out Connor Boyack, founder of the Libertas Institute, a libertarian think tank in Utah. The federal agency’s annual budget is around $80 billion.
To learn more about what this federal agency does and what would happen if it were abolished, read here.
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