We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) implementation and oversight of compliance with environmental requirements as part of the HUD Office of Inspector General’s annual audit plan to contribute to improving HUD’s execution of and accountability for its fiscal responsibilities. Our objective was to determine whether HUD, specifically its Offices of Housing; Public Housing, and Native American Programs within Public and Indian Housing; and Community Planning and Development, ensured that it adequately implemented environmental requirements and provided adequate oversight to ensure compliance with these requirements.
HUD did not adequately implement environmental requirements or provide adequate oversight to ensure compliance with these requirements. For example, Housing and Public Housing did not adequately monitor or provide training to their staff, grantees, or responsible entities on how to comply with environmental requirements. Also, HUD did not have an adequate reporting process for the program areas to ensure that the appropriate headquarters programs were informed of field offices’ environmental concerns. Further, our review of five Public Housing field offices found that none of them followed environmental compliance requirements. These conditions occurred because HUD did not clearly define program area responsibilities. Further, Public Housing did not understand requirements or did not consider compliance to be a priority. As a result, HUD may have increased the risk to the health and safety of the public and failed to prevent or eliminate damage to the environment, and five Public Housing field offices allowed public housing agencies to spend almost $405 million for activities that either did not have required environmental reviews or had reviews that were not adequately supported.
We recommend that HUD (1) comply with and provide adequate oversight to ensure compliance with environmental requirements, (2) either establish an independent program office with overall departmental responsibility for developing and enforcing compliance with environmental policies by all program offices and grantees or establish an agreement that clearly outlines all program offices’ environmental oversight responsibilities, and (3) clarify the delegation of authority in Federal Register notices related to its responsibility for implementation and compliance with environmental requirements.