HUD OIG audited the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program administered by the City of Miami, Florida (City). The objective of the audit was to determine whether the City administered its CDBG program in accordance with applicable U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) requirements.

The City did not administer its CDBG program in accordance with applicable HUD requirements. It did not comply with HUD requirements in meeting national objectives for its commercial façade program. As a result, it had no assurance that more than $4.1 million in expended CDBG funds achieved the intended national objective or met program requirements. In addition, the City did not properly allocate salary expenditures to its CDBG program and did not maintain adequate supporting documentation demonstrating that employees worked in the program. As a result, the City improperly allocated $690,392 to the program. The City also did not accurately report CDBG financial information to HUD in accordance with federal requirements. It inaccurately reported administrative/planning costs for program year 2006 and failed to report $265,823 in reprogrammed CDBG funds to HUD. As a result, there was a lack of assurance that the City reported accurate CDBG financial information to HUD in accordance with HUD regulations.

OIG recommended that the Director of the Miami Office of Community Planning and Development require the City to (1) provide documentation to support that CDBG program requirements were followed and the intended national objective was met for two commercial façade activities or reimburse its program more than $4.1 million from nonfederal funds, (2) reimburse its program $690,392 from nonfederal funds for unsupported salary expenditures, and (3) provide documentation to support the reprogrammed funds or reimburse its program $265,823 from nonfederal funds for canceled CDBG activities for which funds were reprogrammed.