We completed a risk assessment of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) grant closeout process as required by the Grants Oversight and New Efficiency (GONE) Act of 2016, Public Law 114-117.  Our objective was to determine whether an audit or review of HUD’s grant closeout process was warranted.  We found that a moderate risk was associated with HUD’s grant closeout process and recommend that a full audit be...

In violation of the housing assistance payment contract’s conflict-of-interest requirements, the former executive director of the Housing Authority of the City of Beeville, TX, executed housing assistance payment contracts on behalf of the Authority with her brother and sister.  The former executive director did not fully disclose the conflicts-of-interest and had not sought a waiver from HUD’s Office of Public and Indian Housing until the...

On April 17, 2018, the Office of Program Enforcement issued a letter stating that it had reached a resolution under a Program Fraud Civil Remedies Act of 1986[1] case regarding Summit Bradford Apartments located in Tulsa, OK, following its review.  The Government alleged that the owner submitted 40 false claims under the Act.  The Office of Program Enforcement included with its letter the March 28, 2018, settlement agreement with BSR...

We audited information system controls over the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) computing environment.  This review was conducted as part of our audit of HUD’s financial statements for fiscal year 2017 under the Chief Financial Officer’s Act of 1990.  Our objective was to assess general controls over HUD’s computing environment for compliance with HUD information technology policies and Federal information...

We audited general and application controls over selected Federal Housing Administration (FHA) information systems and the credit reform estimation and reestimation process as part of the internal control assessments required for the fiscal year 2017 financial statement audit under the Chief Financial Officer’s Act of 1990.  Our objective was to review the controls for compliance with U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)...

This briefing paper highlights challenges the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) faces in managing and improving its Information Technology (IT) program.  This document analyzed past HUD OIG and GAO IT related reports and recommendations to highlight key management challenges in HUD’s IT program. We are highlighting these challenges so HUD leadership is aware of and can be better prepared to address them. The OIG has...

HUD has a contract with Leidos Innovations Corporation for E-Discovery services using the E-Discovery Management System.  The process for collecting electronically stored information (ESI) and delivering it to customers has two major subprocesses: (1) an initial ESI collection and (2) a keyword search to refine the initial collection results.  OGC’s and Leidos’ collection of ESI does not meet customer demand because processing ESI...

In accordance with the statutory requirements of the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act of 2014 (DATA Act) and standards established by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), we audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Office of the Chief Financial Officer’s (OCFO) compliance with the DATA Act for the second quarter of fiscal year 2017. In the DATA Act Compliance Audit of the U.S. Department of Housing...

The Federal Information Security Modernization Act of 2014 (FISMA) directs Inspectors General to conduct an annual evaluation of the agency information security program.  FISMA, Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) establish information technology (IT) security guidance and standards for Federal agencies. We conducted this evaluation to assess...

Very low REAC scores are not prevalent across ORCF’s portfolio.  The majority of RCFs that received a REAC score scored at least 80 on their last inspection, and more than three quarters scored at least 60.  Despite the small percentage of RCFs that scored below 31, we noticed an overall decline in REAC inspection scores across ORCF’s portfolio from 2000 to 2016. REAC has adopted an inspection process that applies uniformly to all...

Enforce the requirement for all HUD web applications and services to be approved and authorized by OCIO. The OIG has determined that the contents of this recommendation would not be appropriate for public disclosure and has therefore limited its distribution to selected officials. Corrective Action Taken In January 2023, HUD's Office of the Chief Information Officer developed and released a Web Applications Directive to all HUD program...

We received a referral from the Quality Assurance Division of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Philadelphia Homeownership Center concerning a borrower who allegedly made false statements to obtain Federal Housing Administration (FHA) mortgage insurance.  The borrower provided false and conflicting employment and income information, which was used in originating and obtaining an FHA loan.  Further, the...

The Digital Accountability and Transparency Act of 2014 (DATA Act) and implementation guidance provided in the Office of Management and Budget Memorandum M-15-12 mandates that Federal agencies must report their financial, budgetary and programmatic information to the USASpending.gov web site by the statutory May 2017 deadline. In our second of two Data Act Readiness Reviews, OIG reviewed the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (...

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General (OIG), reviewed preforeclosure sales under the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) program in the St. Louis, MO, area.  We found that the purchaser of a property being sold in a preforeclosure sale entered into a consulting agreement with the realtor.  The agreement required that when the purchaser later sold the property, he would pay half of the...

We reviewed the general and application controls over the Federal Housing Administration’s (FHA) Single Family Premiums Collection Subsystem – Periodic (SFPCS-P) and Single Family Acquired Asset Management System (SAMS) as part of the internal control assessments required for the fiscal year 2016 financial statement audit under the Chief Financial Officer’s Act of 1990.  Our objective was to review the general and application controls over...

We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) oversight of its Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) program and found that 33 borrowers had more than 1 loan under the program.  Having multiple loans violated program requirements because HUD requires borrowers to reside in the mortgaged residence as their principal residence and borrowers may not have more than one principal residence at a time.  We referred...

The Federal Information Security Modernization Act of 2014 (FISMA) directs Inspectors General to conduct an annual evaluation of the agency information security program.  FISMA, Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) establish information technology (IT) security guidance and standards for Federal agencies. We conducted this evaluation to assess...

We reviewed the Malakoff Housing Authority, Malakoff, TX. The review was part of a joint initiative between the HUD Office of Inspector General’s Office of Audit and Office of Investigation. We completed the review and referred the former executive director’s improper use of Authority funds by hiring and contracting with family members to HUD’s Office of Program Enforcement for action under the Program Civil Fraud Remedies Act of 1986. On May...

Based on a request from the Assistant U.S. Attorney’s Office in Salt Lake City, UT, we provided information about single-family lenders with high default rates. We then reviewed the available case binders for 38 loans for which the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) had paid claims that were underwritten by City First Mortgage Services, LLC. We completed the review and referred alleged violations to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban...

We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) oversight of its Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) program and found that 33 borrowers had more than 1 loan under the program.  Having multiple loans violated program requirements because HUD requires borrowers to reside in the mortgaged residence as their principal residence and borrowers may not have more than one principal residence at a time.  We referred...