The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General (OIG) is auditing the use of Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) funds as non-Federal match for the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA)Public Assistance Program.  Our objectives are to determine whether four CDBG-DR grantees made improper payments and whether the Office of Community Planning and...

We audited the project activity status for 12 grantees that received funds under the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) National Disaster Resilience (NDR) grant to determine whether the grantees have accomplished or are on track to accomplish the goals of the activities outlined in their action plans. We found that NDR grantees should be able to accomplish their...

We reviewed the Puerto Rico Department of Housing’s (PRDOH) Electrical Power System Enhancements and Improvements programs to provide (1) background and funding information, (2) an update on the status of the programs and their progress, and (3) other relevant program information for interested stakeholders including Congress and the public. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) provided its grantee, PRDOH, $1...

In January 2017, HUD awarded the City $141.2 million in Community Development Block Grant National Disaster Resilience grant funding for disaster resilience. HUD designed the grant to give states flexibility in planning program activities and help state and local communities recover from past disasters, while also improving their infrastructure to withstand future extreme events through strategic community investments.  The City...

From 2001 to 2022, the Community Development Block Grant - Disaster Recovery program provided almost $98 billion to states, cities, counties, and territories to help them recover from disasters.  Administering disaster recovery has been a recurring U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) top management challenge since 2018.  Therefore, we audited the disaster recovery program to determine whether the Office of...

We performed an audit examining HUD’s efforts to prevent duplication of benefits when using Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Disaster Recovery and Mitigation funds.  Our objective was to determine how the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) assesses the adequacy of grantee procedures to prevent a duplication of benefits, both before and after grant execution. HUD certified grantees’ high-level processes...

We performed an audit related to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Disaster Recovery Data Portal.  The Disaster Recovery Data Portal is a technological solution planned by HUD to facilitate the rapid and secure transmission of data from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to HUD’s Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery grantees.  We performed the work because HUD needs a...

We found 13 properties with consecutive REAC scores below 60 that were missing the required flags in HUD’s Active Partners Performance System (APPS) for unacceptable physical condition.  This condition occurred because HUD did not have a quality control program to ensure that the account executives manually entered the flags into APPS and there was no automated process for flagging a property once it received the second...

As part of a Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE) Disaster Assistance Working Group cross-cutting initiative, we summarized the conclusions, findings, and recommendations of 28 reports related to the Federal Government’s natural disaster preparedness and response issued by 7 Offices of Inspector General (OIGs).  The seven participating OIGs included U.S. Departments of Defense, Health and...

We audited the Housing Authority of Plainfield, NJ’s administration of its public housing programs.  We selected the Authority based on a risk analysis of public housing agencies in New Jersey that considered the size of the agency, the amount of operating and capital funds received, and previous work conducted by the Office of Inspector General.  The objective of the audit was to determine whether the Authority administered...

We audited the Buffalo Municipal Housing Authority’s management of its Commodore Perry Homes development.  We selected the Authority based on congressional interest.  Half of the development’s buildings were demolished more than 20 years ago, and the majority of the remaining buildings and units have been vacant for years without redevelopment activity.  The objective of the audit was to determine whether the Authority...