Office of Postsecondary Education’s Oversight of Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund

Summary

A U.S. Department of Education Office of Inspector General report page for "The Office of Postsecondary Education's Oversight of Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund Grants", Report Number A20CA0029, issued June 1, 2022. The audit's objective was to determine whether the Office of Postsecondary Education has an adequate process to ensure that schools use HEERF grant funds appropriately and that performance goals are met. The OIG found that the office established several controls but did not perform or document several key oversight activities, and did not establish clear performance goals beyond a timeliness metric. It made two recommendations, including a risk-based monitoring framework for the HEERF program.

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The Office of Postsecondary Education’s Oversight of Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund Grants

Report Information

Date Issued

June 1, 2022

Report Number

A20CA0029

What We Did

Our objective was to determine whether the Office of Postsecondary Education (OPE) has an adequate process in place to ensure that institutions of higher education (schools) use Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund (HEERF) grant funds appropriately and that performance goals are met.

What We Found

OPE needs to strengthen its oversight processes to ensure that schools use HEERF grant funds appropriately and that performance goals are met. Although we determined that OPE established and implemented several controls to promote transparency and accountability in program administration, it did not perform or document several key activities that are essential to effective program oversight. Regarding performance goals, we found that OPE established a metric related to the timeliness of its initial HEERF awards to schools; however, it did not otherwise establish any clear performance goals for the HEERF program or specific metrics that would provide a basis against which it could monitor individual schools’ performance or report on outcomes at the program level.

What We Recommend

We made two recommendations, including that the Department develop a monitoring framework for the HEERF program that uses a risk assessment process to identify and prioritize significant program risks, and design and implement a risk-based monitoring plan and associated key control activities.

Management Challenge Area

Implementing Pandemic Relief Aid

Related Work Products

This is one of several reports the OIG has issued involving HEERF. Find other reports on our Pandemic Relief page .

View report on Oversight.gov

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