During the ninth in our series of on-going audits of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation's (LMDC) administration of the $2.783 billion of Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery Assistance funds provided to the State of New York following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City, we noted that the final action plan approved by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) on December 6, 2006 did not always specify projects to which funds were to be allocated, nor identify alternative funding sources for some of the activities. While we recognize that the final action plan was prepared and approved at a time when the operation of LMDC as a going concern was in question, which may have resulted in the lack of specifics on certain projects, this question appears to have been resolved for the immediate future. Consequently, the lack of specifics in the final action plan as approved will lessen HUD's ability to evaluate the extent to which future disbursements are in accordance with the approved final action plan. In addition, the lack of information on the nonfederal sources of funding for the World Trade Center Memorial/Museum project lessens HUD's assurance that the funds will be available and that the project will be successfully completed as envisioned.

We recommend that HUD's general deputy assistant secretary for community planning and development instruct LMDC to (1) provide specifics for HUD review for the activities and outcomes expected as a result of the funding approved in the final action plan for the affordable housing, economic development, education, and transportation projects, and (2) identify the amount of private and nonfederal public resources available to date that are reasonably expected to be available for the completion of the World Trade Center Memorial/Museum to ensure that the allocated federal funds will sufficiently leverage those additional resources.