Until program-specific fraud risk assessments are completed, revise the PIIA fraud risk questionnaire process to compensate for the lack of program-specific fraud risk assessments.

Reassess the Homeless Assistance Grants program as part of the fiscal year 2023 risk assessment.

We recommend that the Director for HUD’s Office of Disaster Recovery establish a mechanism to train grantees and HUD staff on existing guidance regarding supporting documentation for expenditures, FFRs, and program income balances on a recurring basis. Additionally, provide guidance and establish recurring training for HUD staff to monitor grantees for program income and submission of the FFRs..

We recommend that the Director for HUD’s Office of Disaster Recovery develop and implement controls to ensure that grantees’ policies and procedures related to program income are adequate.

We recommend that the Director for HUD’s Office of Disaster Recovery provide training to grantees regarding the reporting, tracking, and expenditure of program income.

Require lenders to execute indemnification agreements covering a period of at least 5 years for each of the 20 loans for which the lenders did not comply with the temporary endorsement policy and related instructions, including loans for which the lenders did not execute an agreement when required or that were otherwise ineligible for insurance, and properly store the agreements and record the agreement data to put up to $1,811,238 to better use by avoiding potential losses.

Update data in HUD’s system for the three cases in which the lender incorrectly reported the loans as in COVID-19 forbearance at the time of endorsement to ensure that accurate data are maintained.

Consider implementing a policy to review any of the 292 loans not reviewed as part of this audit that result in a request for claim to ensure that the loans qualified for endorsement under the temporary endorsement policy so that HUD can avoid unnecessary payments for loans that should not have been endorsed.

Record indemnification agreement data in its system for the 34 loans for which the lender properly executed an indemnification agreement before endorsement and HUD had not recorded the agreement in its system to put up to $3,493,636 to better use by avoiding potential losses.

Review and correct indemnification agreement data in HUD’s computer systems as needed for all agreements currently classified as having 2-year terms and all agreements related to 2-year agreements contained on its SharePoint site to ensure that its systems contain accurate data for monitoring and enforcement of agreements. This recommendation includes but is not limited to reviewing the agreement number, agreement term, billing lender, expiration date, refinance indicator, and source indicator.

Update indemnification agreements or obtain updated indemnification agreements for the 30 loans for which the indemnification agreements had incorrect or missing information or were not signed by HUD and upload them to its SharePoint site so that such agreements are properly executed and can be traced to HUD’s computer systems for future use.

We recommend that the Chief Procurement Officer direct the contracting officers to review the current FSM contracts’ QASP and update accordingly to ensure that all minimum contract requirements are included.

We recommend that the Chief Procurement Officer direct the contracting officers to oversee the implementation of the current FSM contracts’ QASP.

We recommend that the Chief Procurement Officer require the contracting officers to implement the policies and procedures in the HUD Acquisition Policy and Procedure Handbook for completion of HUD’s FSM contractor performance assessment reports in CPARS to ensure that Government past performance is documented properly and in a timely manner, at least annually, for use by all Federal agencies and maintained in the contract files.

We recommend that the Chief Procurement Officer require all staff involved in the oversight of FSM contracts to maintain the required documentation in the official contract file identified by HUD policy to support the contracts.

We recommend that the Chief Procurement Officer require the contracting officers to formally designate CORs in a timely manner and maintain the required documentation in the proper location identified in the relevant HUD policies and procedures, which fully supports the CORs’ oversight of the FSM contract.

We recommend that the Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Single Family Housing coordinate with OCPO to require that the contracting officers and CORs be involved in the development, implementation, and documentation of the FSM QASPs for their FSM contracts to ensure that performance statements, acceptable quality levels, and deviation percentages are aligned with the contracts’ requirements in the performance work statement, the performance requirement summary, and the contractor’s quality control plan.

We recommend that the Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Single Family Housing coordinate with OCPO to require the contracting officers and CORs to monitor contractor performance to ensure that evidence is maintained and documented in the contract files for each performance statement completed in the FSM QASPs and that contractor quality control report deliverables resolve problems identified by the Government during reviews conducted in accordance with the QASP for its future FSM contracts.

We recommend that the Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Single Family Housing require the CORs to ensure that contractor past performance evaluations are prepared at least annually and as required by HUD policy to ensure that reporting of contractors is completed properly and in a timely manner for contract options and in CPARS.

Develop and implement a plan to assist PHAs in improving voucher utilization, including providing additional guidance to PHAs to improve coordination between PHAs and PCWAs to improve voucher utilization and limit barriers to leasing.