We audited Camden County, NJ's administration of its Community Development Block Grant funds that it received under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. We selected the County for an audit because we received two complaints alleging that the County misused Recovery Act funds and because of our mandate to audit Recovery Act activities. Our audit objective was to determine whether the County obligated, expended, and reported its Block Grant funds provided under the Recovery Act according to the Recovery Act and applicable HUD requirements.

We found that the County generally administered its Block Grant Recovery Act funds in accordance with the Recovery Act and applicable HUD requirements. However, it (1) approved a subrecipient to execute a change order for work which was outside the scope of the original contract, (2) could not demonstrate that the subrecipient performed a cost analysis for the change order work items, (3) did not ensure that a subrecipient fully complied with the Davis-Bacon Act, and (4) did not accurately report job creation information on the Federal reporting Web site. We found no evidence to substantiate the alleged misuse of Recovery Act funds.

We recommended that HUD require the County to (1) provide documentation to demonstrate that $37,610 expended for work performed under a change order was fair and reasonable or reimburse HUD from non-Federal funds for any amount it cannot support, (2) require a contractor to pay $1,041 to an employee to whom it paid less than the prevailing wage, and (3) report accurate job creation information for the reporting period ending September 30, 2011.