State Sen. Debbie Mayfield said she’s “never come across this before," and is gearing up "to find out why they’re not giving them the information they need and we’re going to correct the problem." | AP Photo In ‘rare’ rebuke, auditors say Florida education officials obstructed their work

TALLAHASSEE — State auditors say that high-level staff at the Florida Department of Education restricted or delayed access to agency records and employees in their quest to properly conduct a routine review of the state's system for administering millions of federal student loans.

In the unusual, scathing finding for a major state agency, first reported by POLITICO, auditors wrote in their report that top education department managers repeatedly got in their way, making it harder for them to do their job in reviewing the state’s administration of the Federal Family Education Loan Program, through which the state has guaranteed more than four million student loans.



"Throughout our audit fieldwork, our requests for access to certain department records, information, and personnel were not granted or were met with delays, inconsistent or incomplete responses, or documentation that could not be verified as authentic," auditors wrote. "This lack of cooperation and responsiveness created redundancies in audit requests, postponed or frustrated the performance of audit procedures, and provided our auditors little assurance as to the completeness and accuracy of some Department-provided information."


Some of the report’s findings are considered “material weaknesses” in complying with major federal programs, Deputy Auditor General Marilyn Tenewitz wrote in an email Friday to POLITICO. "As a result, the U.S. Department of Education has been notified of the findings in our report.”

Despite the access problems, auditors made 14 other findings related to the state’s system for administering the federal loan program. Those findings related to making sure the loan data they reported to the federal government was complete and accurate, as well as the the system’s access and security controls. Auditors raised questions about the department’s ability to protect confidential data in the National Student Loan Data System.

State officers who are subject to the auditor general’s authority are required by state law to provide “on demand” all records needed for a proper audit.

The auditor general is overseen by the Joint Legislative Auditing Committee of the Florida Legislature.

State Sen. Debbie Mayfield (R-Melbourne), the Senate chairwoman of JLAC, told POLITICO she’s “never come across this before," and is gearing up "to find out why they’re not giving them the information they need and we’re going to correct the problem."

In a letter sent last week to Florida Auditor General Sherrill Norman, Florida Commissioner of Education Pam Stewart pushed back against the audit's finding, which she acknowledged was “rare and unusual," and defended the practices of her staff.

“We believe that this finding reflects a misunderstanding of the FLDOE’s long-standing procedures for working relationships with auditors," she wrote, adding that the procedures are “not intended to frustrate or impede an audit; indeed these procedures are designed to ensure that responses are timely, accurate, and complete."

Stewart was appointed as commissioner by the State Board of Education and is close to Gov. Rick Scott, serving as one of his appointees on the Constitution Revision Commission.

The auditor’s report cites the actions of two top DOE officials in particular — the Chief of the Office of Student Financial Aid and the Assistant Deputy Commissioner of the Division of Finance and Operations, who is not named — as impeding auditors’ access.

The department had its own problems with a senior auditor on the audit team, though it did not elaborate on their complaints.

In April 2017, Stewart’s letter states, “after multiple prior attempts to resolve issues surrounding this audit, the FLDOE advised the Auditor General’s office that the behavior of the Senior Auditor was untoward and was creating difficulties in completing the audit." She also argued that DOE leadership wasn’t given enough notice of the auditor access problems to try to fix the situation before the report was published.

Auditors refuted the claims Stewart made in her letter.

"While the Commissioner is correct in that a finding such as this is rarely required, the Audit Supervisor and audit team leader did meet with the Assistant Deputy Commissioner of the Division of Finance and Operations, and the Senior Educational Program Director as early as March 3, 2017, to explain that the restrictive practices required by the Department could result in this finding," the audit report states in a response to Stewart's letter.

The response also notes that though auditors “adjusted the responsibilities of the audit team members" following DOE's complaint about the senior auditor, "the team continued to experience a lack of cooperation and responsiveness from the Department."

In her letter, Stewart expressed “a very high level of concern about the documentation, assumptions and conclusions of this finding."

But auditors wrote that they “strongly disagree with the characterization that the facts presented in this finding lack appropriate support," explaining that the finding is "supported by sufficient, appropriate evidence and the supporting working papers were subjected to several levels of review, including review by audit professionals who were not assigned to the audit team."

They recommended that to ensure DOE is providing auditors appropriate access, the department needs to “revise the restrictive standard audit practices" that Stewart defended in her letter.

Mayfield said that in her conversations with Norman, she learned “this is not the first time they have done this."

She said DOE "has always been a challenge for them to get information from," but auditors have found workarounds — something Mayfield said already constitutes a problem. But she noted “this year was harder than previous years" for auditors working with DOE.

"I’m not going to let this go," she said.

She said she’s expecting a list from Norman of potential corrective measures to prevent future problems.

“If our auditor general cannot get the information needed to make sure our taxpayer dollars are being spent properly, then we’ve got an issue," Mayfield said.