ED Communications about the Agency’s Navient Audit Report

Department of Education Office of Inspector General communications between agency officials and Navient regarding the agency’s audit of the loan servicer.

In these records

March 2, 2017: Federal Student Aid (FSA) official Patrice Washington sent a letter to Navient about an upcoming Education Department visitation to review Navient’s operations and listen in on live calls. The agenda for the review, set to take place March 20–24, 2017, includes a tentative agenda and materials Navient needed to provide to FSA. 

May 18, 2017: The resulting FSA report from the March visit includes a review of Navient’s call center and servicing history. FSA officials observed that on some phone calls, Navient representatives withheld financing options to borrowers and “neglected to offer the borrower an option other than forbearance,” which in some cases resulted in unnecessary interest capitalization on loans. 

Feb. 19, 2019: Chief Legal Officer for the Navient Corporation Mark Heleen sent a letter to the Education Department’s Assistant Inspector General for Audit Bryon Gordon, asking for a public correction to the May 2017 Navient report concerning which items Navient provided FSA for the review. The Office of the Inspector General’s updated report is available here.