We audited the State of Iowa’s monitoring of the City of Cedar Rapids’ voluntary property acquisition program.   We selected the State for review based on a prior audit of the City’s voluntary property acquisition program.  During fiscal years 2009 through 2012, the State awarded the City more than $166 million in disaster funding.  Our audit objective was to determine whether the State monitored the City’s voluntary property acquisition program in accordance with its approved Disaster Recovery action plans.

The State did not monitor the City’s voluntary property acquisition program in accordance with its approved Disaster Recovery action plans.  Its monitoring checklists did not include all of its procurement requirements, such as cost reasonableness and all required contract provisions.

We recommend that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) require the State to update its monitoring checklists to include elements of 24 CFR (Code of Federal Regulations) 85.36(f) and all of the required contract provisions found at 24 CFR 85.36(i).