Service Academies' Foreign Student Program-Tuition Billing

摘要

Public Law 98-94, 'Defense Authorization Act of 1984', section 1004, provides guidance on the 'Selection of Persons from Foreign Countries to Receive Instruction at the Service Academies'. Public Law 98-94 requires that each foreign country sponsoring a student reimburse the United States Government for the student's tuition costs unless the Office of the Secretary of Defense grants the country a written waiver. In total, 229 foreign students have attended the academies under Public Law 98-94 through April 1993, and 93 of those foreign students had graduated as of June 1992. Of the foreign students in the classes of 1989 through 1996, all except 22 received full waivers of tuition. The total amount billable to foreign governments for those foreign students without waivers was approximately $1.2 million. The Under Secretary of Defense for Policy requested this audit because of a billing problem at the United States Naval Academy. Due to an administrative oversight, the United States Naval Academy did not bill tuition costs to the Government of Japan for the first 3 years a Japanese student attended the academy. Upon being billed, the Government of Japan refused to pay because it had not officially sponsored the student. The audit objective was to determine if academy procedures for billing foreign governments for their students' tuition were adequate to ensure accurate billings occurred in a timely manner. We also reviewed internal controls over the foreign student program, including the procedures for ensuring that foreign students are officially sponsored by their governments.