We audited the Louisville-Jefferson County Metropolitan Government’s Housing Opportunities for Persons With AIDS (HOPWA) program.  We selected Louisville Metro for review based on a management referral from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Louisville, KY, Office of Community Planning and Development and in accordance with our annual audit plan.  Our audit objective was to determine whether Louisville Metro administered its HOPWA program in accordance with HUD’s and its own requirements. 

Louisville Metro did not always administer its HOPWA program in accordance with HUD’s and its own requirements.  Specifically, it did not always ensure that program disbursements to its project sponsors were adequately supported and appropriate.  In addition, the executive director of one of Louisville Metro’s subrecipients, AIDS Interfaith Ministries of Kentuckiana, Inc. (AIM), mismanaged its funds.  These conditions occurred because Louisville Metro did not understand the program requirements and did not sufficiently monitor AIM’s controls over cash management.  As a result, program disbursements totaling more than $31,000 were not adequately supported, and disbursements totaling more than $14,000 were inappropriate under the program.  In addition, AIM had ceased operations; therefore, it did not complete the administration of program funds allocated to it.

We recommend that the Director of HUD’s Louisville, KY, Office of Community Planning and Development require Louisville Metro to (1) support or reimburse its HOPWA program more than $45,000 for inadequately supported and inappropriate disbursements from non-Federal funds, (2) provide adequate training to its staff responsible for reviewing and approving expenditures to ensure compliance with HUD’s and Louisville Metro’s requirements, and (3) implement adequate procedures for conducting sufficient monitoring of its project sponsors’ cash management.