Report 2015-505 Recommendation 7 Responses

Report 2015-505: Follow-Up—California Department of Veterans Affairs: Better Collection and Use of Data Would Improve Its Outreach Efforts, and It Needs to Strengthen Its Oversight of County Veterans Service Officer Programs (Release Date: July 2015)

Recommendation #7 To: Veterans Affairs, Department of

To improve its oversight of the College Fee Waiver Program and ensure that the CVSOs are not erroneously waiving college fees, Veterans Services should develop and implement a review process for college fee waivers by December 31, 2015.

6-Month Agency Response

The CalVet Subvention and Medi-Cal Cost Avoidance Audit Manual and Desk Procedures document was completed December 23, 2015. This document includes the procedures and requirements for performing sample audits of college fee waivers in order to ensure that CVSOs are not erroneously waiving college fees. Strategically selected samples of college fee waivers from every CVSO are reviewed to look for issues such as duplicate student claims in the same academic year, grants and denials for a single student in an academic year, and missing information on the DVS-40. Validation of the documents that are the basis of the grant or denial for the college fee waiver are also part of the audit procedure.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Fully Implemented

60-Day Agency Response

The CalVet CVSO Auditor is currently implementing procedures for the audit functions to include periodic reviews of CVSO claims activities and College Fee Waiver Program. Claim activities and College Fee Waivers along with their supporting documentation are be verified by the CVSO Auditor on a periodic basis. The written desk procedures for these processes will be completed by December 31, 2015. District Office staff continue to provide regular training and feedback to CVSOs including feedback on corrections made to incoming claims on a monthly basis, and will continue to provide training to all CVSOs at three training conferences each year.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Pending

All Recommendations in 2015-505

Agency responses received are posted verbatim.