The Department of Education's Inspector General has identified and prosecuted 17 cases where borrowers received large amounts in student loans by claiming falsely to be pursuing studies at foreign institutions. Officials see serious statutory, regulatory, and program deficiencies that may expose programs to more fraud and abuse. Critics feel the…

In four sections, this document reports on the activities of the Office of Inspector General (OIG), which provides audit, investigation, fraud detection and prevention, and certain security services to the U.S. Department of Education. Section 1 presents data on OIG audit activities, money recovered or saved, and the problem of unresolved audits,…

The Office of Inspector General (OIG), mandated to provide audit, investigation, fraud detection and prevention, and some security services to the U.S. Department of Education, presents its third semi-annual report in this document. OIG audit activities are recounted in the first section, which details audit accomplishments and highlights audits…

The Office of Inspector General (OIG) describes its provision of audit, investigation, fraud detection and prevention, and certain security services to the U.S. Department of Education (ED). Audit activities are reviewed in the first section, which discusses audit accomplishments, OIG audits by government and independent auditors, audits on…

Describes how a federal program let a California for-profit institution, the Masters Institute, expand its distance education offerings, but then led to its closure because of findings of financial aid fraud. (EV)

EStablished in 1980 to help improve management effectiveness, the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Inspector General (OIG) is responsible for audit, investigative, fraud detection and prevention, and some security services for the Department. In this document--its first semi-annual report--the OIG first describes its organizational…

A recent Department of Education study, developed with the assistance of the Internal Revenue Service, found that of 2.3 million Pell Grants in 1995-96, 102,000 went to students who failed to report or underreported family income. More than 300 recipients had each underreported income by over $100,000. The report comes when the Clinton…

Public officials and student aid experts agree that the federal program delivery system is outdated, inefficient, and vulnerable to fraud, but they disagree on how bad the situation is and whether the Education Department has the structure necessary to fix it. A 1995 project to integrate all federal grant and loan programs into one system has not…

This report provides an overview of efforts undertaken by the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) in 1990 to review and report on federal program areas its work identified as high risk because of vulnerabilities to waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement. It reviews the current status of efforts to address these concerns. The six categories of…

The federal government's war on fraud, waste, and abuse in expenditure of federal funds has reached college campuses. Institutions that fail to heed this development are vulnerable to harsh sanctions. They must tighten accounting practices and recognize their liability for fraudulent practices of faculty and students. Internal investigations and…

The United States Department of Education (ED), Office of Inspector General (OIG), describes in its semiannual report its provisions for audit, investigation, fraud detection and prevention, as well as other activities. The first section reviews management improvement and preventive activities including recommended changes to legislation and…

Parameters and procedures for developing an error-prone model (EPM) to predict financial aid applicants who are likely to misreport on Basic Educational Opportunity Grant (BEOG) applications are introduced. Specifications to adapt these general parameters to secondary data analysis of the Validation, Edits, and Applications Processing Systems…

An evaluation of existing and proposed mechanisms to ensure data accuracy for the Pell Grant program is reported, and recommendations for efficient detection of fraud and error in the program are offered. One study objective was to examine the existing system of pre-established criteria (PEC), which are validation criteria that select students on…

This report summarizes the accomplishments of the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Inspector General (OIG), for the 6-month period ending March 31, 1993. An audit and inspection of student financial assistance programs administered by the Office of Postsecondary Education found that many postsecondary vocational training programs are funded…

An error-prone model (EPM) to predict financial aid applicants who are likely to misreport on Basic Educational Opportunity Grant (BEOG) applications was developed, based on interviews conducted with a quality control sample of 1,791 students during 1978-1979. The model was designed to identify corrective methods appropriate for different types of…