Province auditing Calgary college, suspends student loan access citing 'poor practices'
A former ABM employee said they found more than 100 people who were approved for student loans but never attended the college
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The Alberta government has revoked ABM College of its rights to student loans after an audit uncovered what the province has called “poor practices and weak controls” at the Calgary institution.
The province limited access to student aid availability on Jan. 31 while it investigates the situation, according to the office of Advanced Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides.
“A third-party audit found poor practices and weak internal controls. We’re looking into this further to make sure the school accessed the amount of tuition they were entitled to from student aid,” Nicolaides’ press secretary Sam Blackett said.
He said the private college remains licensed to deliver programming and that classes are ongoing, adding students can still apply for programming while the process continues.
“Students will only be limited from applying for new student aid funding at the institution while the issues are being resolved. We’ll keep looking into this issue and restore access to student aid once we have more information confirming they have appropriate internal practices and controls in place,” Blackett said.
Provincial officials declined to disclose what triggered the audit, or any specific financial concerns.
Former employees raised questions
According to its website, ABM College offers programs in health, business and technology, as well as a CPR and first-aid training course. The college was founded in 2011 by Dr. Mohammad Baten and has campuses in Toronto and Calgary.
Former ABM employees raised questions about the college’s past practices, including that funding was provided for applicants who weren’t enrolled.
Postmedia asked ABM about those allegations and the province’s latest audit.
In a statement, Baten said the college has “provided all requested documentation and will continue to co-operate with the Alberta government during our audit.”
Employees found concerns with student loans system
One former employee, who worked in multiple roles at ABM over the span of a decade, said bullying among staff and management made bringing awareness to the issues they witnessed difficult and fruitless.
The employee, who eventually resigned, said they first identified concerns with the school’s student loans system when contacted by Student Aid Alberta about an individual who was denied a mortgage because of outstanding student loans from ABM. The student claimed to have never attended the college.
“(They) weren’t in our system, they never went to ABM but had student loans to the school under their name . . . That’s when we started looking at names and we found over 100 who were approved for loans but never attended,” the employee said, estimating the loan amounts at between $5,000 and $8,000 per student.
Another former ABM employee started to get concerned about operations when the college’s lead financial officer quit “because she didn’t want to put her name on documents that were not truthful,” they said.
A former instructor at ABM said the college struggled financially during the pandemic and alleged there were discussions about bringing back the minimum number of staff needed to access government grants and funding.
The federal student aid office was not immediately available for comment and did not confirm if it is conducting its own audit or if federal student loan access to ABM College students has been limited.
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