The OIG has determined that the contents of this recommendation would not be appropriate for public disclosure and has therefore limited its distribution to selected officials.

Develop and implement adequate written policies to ensure that cardholders obtain appropriate authorizations to support charges to their government travel cards and establish a process for submitting a written request to OCFO for a merchant code unblock.

Develop and implement written policies to ensure that program offices adequately follow up on identified questionable charges and inform OCFO of significant travel card violations when they are identified.

Review the identified 3,160 transactions totaling $555,337 to determine whether they were for official government travel. If they were not for official travel, OCFO should determine whether the cardholders paid the credit bill for the improper charges, request reimbursement when applicable, and take all other appropriate actions.

Take appropriate steps to establish eligibility for collection termination or compromise for 10 debts totaling $1,210,278,5 including three debts that were closed without required DOJ approval. For debts that have a remaining appropriate means of collection, such as demand letters, administrative offset, or referral to Treasury, HUD should reinstate the debt and resume collections.

Conduct a complete analysis of existing procedures to strengthen controls over debt collection, including HUD’s Treasury Reports of Receivables reporting, resulting in funds to be put to better use of $3,247,078. Controls should include additional procedures for ensuring that DOJ approval is obtained when required, that all appropriate means of collection have been pursued (including referral to Treasury when required), and that all closed debts are tracked and were properly authorized for collection termination or forgiveness. The analysis should also include a review of HUD’s Treasury Reports on Receivables, and any other available records to verify that all closed debts were properly approved for collection termination or forgiveness when required. For any identified debts that were not properly approved, the Departmental Claims Collection Officer should coordinate with applicable program offices to obtain appropriate documentation to approve collection termination or reinstate the debt and resume collections.

Ensure that all payments to Federal employees are included in HUD’s periodic risk assessment cycle.

Establish and implement procedures and controls, in coordination with FHA, to ensure that FHA information reported in the AFR is accurate and consistent with supporting documents.

Develop and implement steps to ensure that the description of corrective actions highlights current efforts and key milestones for ongoing efforts and explain in the AFR how it specifically tailored its corrective actions to better reflect the unique processes, procedures, and risks involved with RHAP as required by OMB.

Develop and implement steps to ensure that adequate disclosures are made when future-year reduction targets for improper payments reported in the AFR are higher than the current-year improper payment estimates.

Disclose in the AFR the results of HUD’s review concerning its current performance against program-specific improper payment reduction targets to promote transparency.

Request sufficient monetary resources to upgrade HUD’s many legacy and financial systems so its technologies and data elements no longer differ and can perform the necessary data inventory and mapping to report HUD’s information in USASpending.gov accurately and in a timely manner.

Ensure that HUD program officials continue taking appropriate steps to fully resolve its errors and data quality issues that the agency identified during implementation, including those related to assigning a unique identifier consistent with the established DATA Act schema, such as the Federal Award Identification Number.

Designate official DATA Act points of contact for FHA and Ginnie Mae and oversee the progress of the two HUD components’ individual implementation plans, ensuring timely and successful completion of their steps.

Finalize required mapping of HUD’s, including FHA’s and Ginnie Mae’s, financial, budgetary and programmatic data, as required by the DATA Act and OMB guidance.

Evaluate the current content of HUD’s financial statement note disclosures to identify outdated or irrelevant information that may not be needed, while maintaining compliance with OMB Circular A-136 and presenting the reader with the information necessary to understand HUD’s financial statements.

Work with FHA and Ginnie Mae to reevaluate the note consolidation process to determine changes that can be made to the process to ensure compliance with financial reporting requirements.

Reassess HUD’s current consolidated financial statement and notes review process to ensure that (1) all reviewers have sufficient financial reporting experience; (2) it includes steps to verify that the notes match HUD’s financial statements, are sufficiently supported, and accurately include FHA and Ginnie Mae information; and the review can be completed within the required timeframe needed to allow for audit.

Develop a plan to ensure that restatements to HUD’s consolidated financial statements are properly reflected in all notes impacted by the restatement.

The OIG has determined that the contents of this recommendation would not be appropriate for public disclosure and has therefore limited its distribution to selected officials.