ACL Assignment (5%)

Question (Identification of potential fraud using ACL)

You are auditing Pell grants provided to students at six state universities. The Pell grant
program is a federal financial aid program for college students. The maximum grant a
student can receive during a school year is $3,125, with a maximum of $1,041.67 per
semester and summer session. The amount of a grant depends on financial need
(need) and the number of credits taken (status). Students cannot receive a grant at two
different schools during the same school year. Obtain a file grant named Pella.xls that
contains the following information:
SSN

Social Security number

Last

Students last name

First

Students first name

Middle

Students middle name or initial

School

School-coded 1 to 6

Term

Need*

Coded 1 to 3
1-Fall semester
2-Spring semester
3-Summer semester
Financial need-coded 1 to 5
1-100% of allowable grant
2-75%
3-50%
4-25%
5-0%

Status*

Credits taken-coded 1 to 4:

1-12 or more credits: 100%

2-9 to 11 credits: 75%

3-6 to 8 credits: 50%

4-3 to 5 credits: 25%

Amount

Amount of grant for the term

Computation of grant: $3,125/3*Need*Status

For a full time student with maximum need:

$3,125/3*100%*100% = $ 1,041.67

For a student with a code 3 need taking 9 credits:

$3,125/3*50%*75% = $390.63
*Hint: To convert the NEED codes to the proper decimal value, use the expression
[1-.25(NEED 1)]. The same conversion can be used for STATUS codes.
1. Develop an audit program to identify potential fraud using ACL
2. Use ACL to perform the steps in your audit program
3. Provide the following documentation as well:
a. Your audit program referenced to the ACL printouts supporting each audit
step.
b. A report on your findings including additional steps you would take to
determine if fraud actually occurred.
c. Appropriate ACL printouts properly indexed with comments written on the
printouts to explain the printout and its implications. Do not print the entire
grant file. Extract only the items of significance.