The federal Department of Education, after months of criticism for lax oversight of the student loan program, still has no system to detect and uncover misconduct by lenders and protect student borrowers, a new government report said yesterday.

The report, by the Government Accountability Office and released by Congressional Democrats, found that the department had “no oversight tools” to see whether lenders were giving improper incentives to colleges to steer student borrowers their way, and, that since 1989, the department had offered lenders no “comprehensive guidance” on what incentives might be forbidden. In 20 years, the report found, the department has tried to punish only two lenders for violating government rules...

Michael Dannenberg, director of education policy at the New America Foundation, based in Washington, said the report was significant for finding that the department lacked procedures for determining when and how to enforce rules on lenders.

“The processes aren’t there,” Mr. Dannenberg said. “But it’s more than that, because even if the processes were there, there’s evidence that they don’t seem to be taking their enforcement responsibility very seriously.”

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