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MOHELA Audit Reveals Excessive Perks

By Maria Carter

Kansas City, MO – A state audit released today showed Missouri's student loan agency MOHELA spent millions of dollars in perks and benefits for executives. KCUR's Maria Carter reports.

Missouri State Auditor Susan Montee stopped at UMKC today to present the audit investigating the workings of MOHELA. The audit found that MOHELA executives had hefty benefit packages and lavish perks, including 3 months in vacation time each year, generous car allowances, and annual bonuses for as much as 40 percent of their salary. Montee says these are out of place.

Susan Montee:" Basically, Mohela was acting like a public company and paying out to themselves profits, but they didn't have any shareholders they had to answer to. The reality is these are public dollars and public funds and they were just having no oversight."

Student loan officials acknowledge most of the problems and say the agency has fixed itself.

Maria Carter, KCUR news.

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