We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) use of its Integrated Disbursement and Information System to provide oversight of activities in its Community Development Block Grant program. The audit was performed based on the Office of the Inspector General’s (OIG) annual audit plan and its strategic plan to help HUD improve its fiscal responsibilities. The objective of the audit was to assess the adequacy of HUD’s use...

We audited the operations of the City of Syracuse, NY, pertaining to its Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program. The objectives of the audit were to determine whether the City administered its CDBG program effectively, efficiently, and economically in accordance with applicable rules and regulations. Specifically, we wanted to determine whether City officials had (1) established and implemented the necessary controls to ensure that...

We audited the Municipality of San Juan Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program. The audit was in accordance with our audit plan to review funds provided under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. We selected the Municipality based on the large amount of Program funds approved. Our objective was to determine whether the Municipality ensured that its Program complied with Recovery Act and U. S. Department of Housing...

We audited Healthy Neighborhoods, Inc.’s Neighborhood Stabilization Program 2 based on a complaint received by our office and as part of our annual audit plan to review activities funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The grantee received $26 million in Program funds under the Recovery Act. Our objective was to determine whether the grantee ensured that its consortium members properly awarded Program contracts and...

We completed an audit of the City of New York, NY (City), pertaining to its administration of its Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program (HPRP) funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Our audit objectives were to determine whether City officials (1) disbursed HPRP funds efficiently and effectively in accordance with HUD and other applicable requirements; (2) had a financial management system in place to...

We audited TXL Mortgage Corporation, a nonsupervised direct endorsement lender located in Houston, TX. We selected TXL due to one of its loan correspondents’ high default rate. Our audit objectives were to determine whether TXL acted in a prudent manner and complied with U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) regulations, procedures, and instructions in the origination and sponsoring of Federal Housing Administration (FHA)-...

We audited Bergen County, NJ’s administration of its Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program (HPRP) in support of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General’s (OIG) goal to review the expenditure of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds and contribute to improving HUD’s execution and accoutability of fiscal responsibilites. The audit objective was to determine whether Bergen County...

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) – Office of Inspector General (OIG) reviewed 46 Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loans that Pierce Commercial Bank underwrote as an FHA direct endorsement lender. Pierce was a supervised FHA direct endorsement lender located in Tacoma, WA. This case was referred to us by OIG’s Office of Investigation. Our review objective was to determine whether Pierce underwrote 46 loans in...

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of Inspector General audited Countrywide Bank, FSB (Countrywide),* a Federal Housing Administration (FHA) supervised lender** approved to originate, underwrite, and submit mortgages for insurance under the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) direct endorsement program. We selected Countrywide based on its average default-to-claim rate of 6.76 percent for the FHA-...

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of Inspector General audited Pioneer Civic Services, Inc’s Supportive Housing Program and Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS (HOPWA) competitive grants. We selected Pioneer based on a request by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Office of Community Planning and Development. Our audit objective was to determine whether Pioneer effectively...

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General audited the 68 Federal Housing Administration (FHA) claims submitted by CitiMortgage, Inc., of O’Fallon, MO. Our audit objective was to determine whether Citi properly determined that borrowers were eligible to participate in the Preforeclosure Sale Program. We found that Citi improperly submitted claims totaling nearly $5 million for 63 of the 68...

We conducted a review to determine whether IndyMac Bank followed Federal Housing Administration (FHA) policies and procedures when it originated FHA-insured loans. We focused on loans secured by California properties and that were in claim or default status as of February 12, 2009. Within this group, we identified a set of questionable loans originated by IndyMac that had been generated by Beechwood Incorporated. Beechwood is a company...

HUD OIG performed an audit of the State of Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs, Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program in Montgomery, Alabama. The audit was part of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General’s (OIG) annual audit plan to review grant activities funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act). We selected the grantee because...

We reviewed alleged violations of U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loan origination requirements by the subject. We concluded that the subject falsely certified to the truthfulness and accuracy of documents and information in mortgage loan applications on FHA-insured loans. The Department of Justice filed a complaint under the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement...

We reviewed alleged violations of U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loan origination requirements by the subject. We concluded that the subject made false statements on a mortgage loan application for one property, and falsely acted as the seller of a second property on behalf of another person. The Department of Justice filed a complaint under the Financial Institutions Reform,...

HUD OIG conducted an inspection of the Washington, DC Department of Housing and Community Development’s (DHCD) participation in HUD’s ESG program in order to determine whether DHCD (the grantee) and its sub-recipients: (1) appropriately used HUD grant funds for eligible homeless assistance services, and (2) accurately entered required information into the Integrated Disbursement and Information System (IDIS). We determined that DHCD did not...

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General, reviewed the State of Montana’s Community Development Block Grant-Recovery (CDBG-R) program, based on HUD’s concern with the State directly loaning CDBG-R funds to entities and because of our focus on the administration of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds. The objective of our review was to determine whether the State used its CDBG-R funds in...

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development – Office of Inspector General audited the Federal Housing Administration because we noted during previous audit work that FHA might not have a system in place to track lenders who voluntarily left the FHA program with outstanding indemnification agreements. Our objective was to determine whether FHA prevented corporate officers from participating in FHA programs after those officers left...

We audited AmericaHomeKey, Inc., a Federal Housing Administration (FHA) direct endorsement lender in Dallas, TX. We selected AmericaHomeKey for audit because during our review of Gold Financial Services (2011-FW-1002), an AmericaHomeKey branch office, we identified three loans originated by one of its underwriters that contained underwriting and valuation deficiencies. Our objective was to determine whether AmericaHomeKey originated...