We reviewed HUD’s San Juan, PR, Office of Community Planning and Development’s monitoring of the Vieques, PR, Sports City Complex project.  The review was performed based on indicators identified in the audit of the Vieques Sports City Complex, Office of the Commissioner for Municipal Affairs’ (OCMA) Puerto Rico State Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Section 108 Loan Guarantee program.  More than 11 years had elapsed since HUD monitored the sport complex; however, the deficiencies identified remained unresolved.  The objective of this review was to determine whether HUD took effective actions to enforce the resolution of the deficiencies noted in its 2002 monitoring review of the Vieques Sports City Complex.

HUD did not take appropriate actions to prevent a continuation of the deficiencies and to mitigate the adverse effects and consequences of the deficiencies noted in the 2002 HUD monitoring of the Vieques project.  HUD’s actions during the past 11 years did not produce a quick resolution of the monitoring deficiencies.  Although alternate options to the sports complex project were presented and discussed with HUD, OCMA did not implement a corrective action plan to mitigate and resolve the noncompliance issues associated with the project.  The failed sports complex project was abandoned and not completed, materials and equipment acquired for its construction were unaccounted for, and the intended benefit was not realized. Despite the continued noncompliance on behalf of OCMA to bring a resolution to the concerns of the project, HUD allowed the situation to continue for more than 11 years without raising a finding and providing corrective actions or imposing sanctions.  The failure of HUD to take timely actions had a negative impact on the State CDBG program, as more than $10.8 million in Federal funds were spent for developing a project that was never completed and low- and moderate-income persons did not receive the intended benefits.

We recommend that HUD (1) issue a finding pertaining to the deficiencies identified in the 2002 HUD monitoring report, and (2) increase its monitoring of OCMA to ensure that the monitoring deficiencies related to the Vieques sports complex are resolved in a quick manner and in accordance with HUD requirements.