An audit released by the Education Department yesterday described its slipshod oversight of federal student loan servicers that were regularly let off the hook for mistakes, driving up costs for taxpayers and for borrowers already owing more than $1 trillion in debt, the New York Times reported. The department failed to track many mistakes by servicers, the contractors hired to send out monthly bills, keep track of what borrowers owe and help them navigate repayment options. And when serious problems were discovered, the department rarely invoked its contractual right to dock servicers’ pay, the department’s inspector general said in its report. Student loan servicers and Education Department officials pushed back against the audit’s findings. In a written response included in the report, James F. Manning, the acting chief operating officer of the agency’s Federal Student Aid office, said his department was dedicated to giving borrowers “world-class service” and strongly disagreed with the report’s conclusion. The audit said that more than 60 percent of the agency’s oversight reports from 2015 to late 2017 contained examples of servicers acting improperly.
