Education
A Report on Formula Funding Reporting for 35 State Universities
August 2000
Report Number 00-038
Overall Conclusion
To review the accuracy of formula funding reporting by state universities, the State Auditor's Office (Office) requested that all 35 public universities self-report enrollment data errors, and we audited enrollment data at Texas A&M University and Texas Tech University. Eighteen universities submitted self-reported errors, none of which exceeded the 2 percent error rate allowed by the General Appropriations Act, Article III-233, Section 19. Audit testing showed that Texas Tech University exceeded the 2 percent allowable error rate. Texas A&M University's audit results were within the 2 percent allowable error rate. The audit results for Texas A&M University are included in A Follow-Up Audit Report on Management Controls at Texas A&M University (SAO Report No. 00-003, October 1999).
Key Facts and Findings
- Differences in the language of the Texas Education Code (Code) and the General
Appropriations Act (Act) resulted in the Office and Texas Tech University
(University) interpreting the terms "tuition" and "fees" differently. The
Office's interpretation came from the Higher Education Coordinating Board's
(Coordinating Board) definitions of "tuition" and "fees."
- The Commissioner of the Coordinating Board accepted the University's interpretation
of fees for this audit cycle but will work with the Legislature to obtain
consistency between the Code and the Act. However, the Commissioner did not
accept the University's definition of tuition for this audit cycle.
- Our audit identified problems with the University's procedures for reporting
semester credit hour data for formula funding purposes.
- Of 35 universities, 18 submitted self-reported errors, none of which exceeded the 2 percent allowable error rate. The funding associated with these errors totaled approximately $1.3 million ($1,079,715 in over-funding and $249,028 in under-funding).
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