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Línea Directa

REPORTAR FRAUDE, DESPERDICIO O ABUSO
Diciembre 20, 2018
  • Deputy Secretary
2017-OE-0006

The Federal Government may choose to outsource for products or services using contracts and contractors.  HUD-owned and contractor-supported products and services are core to achieving HUD’s mission.  In FY 2017, HUD awarded 2,338 contracts, modifications, and task orders valued at $3.9 billion.  Specifically, HUD awarded 1,598 contracts totaling $3.1 billion in ultimate contract value for FY 2017.  While 19 HUD offices awarded FY 2017 contracts to achieve their goals, 4 HUD offices – the Government National Mortgage Association (Ginnie Mae), the Office of Housing, the Office of Chief Information Officer, and the Office of Administration – accounted for approximately 75 percent of HUD contracts awarded and approximately 97 percent of the $1.1 billion current contract value.

Contracting officer representatives (COR) are HUD employees who monitor and manage HUD’s contracts.  For the period reviewed, HUD had 225 CORs for the 19 offices that awarded contracts.  Some of the CORs assisted more than one office, and many CORs were responsible for more than one contract.  The COR list provided by the Office of the Chief Procurement Officer (OCPO) did not match Ginnie Mae’s COR list.  Although the discrepancy is unusual, OCPO and Ginnie Mae provided reasonable explanations for the inconsistencies, and we do not believe this issue negatively affects either office’s mission. 

For FY 2017, HUD’s contracts consisted of 12 types.  The vast majority of contracts – 89.7 percent – were firm fixed price.

The exact number of HUD’s full-time-equivalent contract employees remains unknown because HUD does not track that information.  OCPO officials stated that OCPO contracts for services and products and HUD pays for the contract’s completion, not for a specific number of employees per contract. 

Because HUD does not maintain the number of full-time-equivalent contract employees, we surveyed the CORs to collect this information.  However, we received information on only 14 percent of the contracts that HUD had in FY 2017.  Further, 120 responses did not provide full-time-equivalent contract employee information.  Therefore, we do not consider our survey results for the number of full-time-equivalent contract employees to be a complete representation of HUD’s reliance on contract employees.