We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) field review appraisal process. This audit was conducted as part of the HUD Office of Inspector General’s (OIG) fiscal year 2011 annual audit plan and was designed to follow up on selected findings in OIG’s Audit Report 2008-LA-0003 on the appraiser review process. Our objective was to determine whether HUD (1) ensured that field review appraisers complied with the appraisal...

HUD OIG conducted an evaluation of the information reported by HUD recipients pertaining to the number of jobs created and retained with American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Funds.  Our evaluation focused on the job data reported by HUD recipients located in the State of New York and covered the reporting periods from the third quarter of 2009 through the fourth quarter of 2010.  We wanted to determine the accuracy of the...

We initiated a review of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) oversight of the Housing Choice Voucher program’s fee-for-service system because it was included in our annual audit plan, prompted by a prior external audit, during which we noted that a housing agency charged management and bookkeeping fees far in excess of the applicable overhead expense while following HUD’s fee-for-service requirements. Our overall audit...

In this report, we provide additional details to supplement our Report on the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) Fiscal Years 20011 and 2010 Financial Statements, which is included in HUD's Fiscal Year 2011 Agency Financial Report. In OIG's opinion, based on our audit and the reports of other auditors, the financial statements were presented fairly, in all material respects, in conformity with accounting...

We audited the National Community Reinvestment Coalition’s (grantee) compliance with provisions in its Fair Housing Initiatives Program grant agreement with the U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The audit was conducted based on a congressional request, which raised questions regarding the grantee’s compliance with conflict-of-interest provisions in its grant agreement with HUD. Our objective was to determine whether the...

In accordance with the Government Corporation Control Act as amended (31 U.S.C. 9105), the Office of Inspector General engaged the independent certified public accounting firm of Clifton Gunderson LLP (CG) to audit the fiscal years 2011 and 2010 financial statements of the Federal Housing Administration (FHA). The contract required that the audit be performed according to Generally Accepted Government Auditing Standards (GAGAS). CG is...

In accordance with the Government Corporation Control Act as amended (31 U.S.C. 9105), the Office of Inspector General engaged the independent certified public accounting firm of Clifton Gunderson LLP (CG) to audit the fiscal years 2011 financial statements of the Government National Mortgage Association (Ginnie Mae). The contract required that the audit be performed according to Generally Accepted Government Auditing Standards (GAGAS). Ginnie...

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 U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) compliance with initial expenditure requirements related to six programs funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA). The objectives of our audit were to determine whether (1) HUD grantees complied with their initial expenditure requirements; (2) recaptures were properly recorded and controls over the recapture process existed and complied with the...

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of Inspector General audited the Office of Healthy Homes and Lead Hazard Control’s monitoring of its American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 grant recipients. The audit was part of the activities in our fiscal year 2011 annual audit plan. We selected Healthy Homes for audit based upon an internal audit suggestion regarding Healthy Homes’ monitoring of its grant recipients...

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-...

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...

In response to a request for review from the Office of the Department Operations and Coordination, we are auditing the Office of Labor Relations (Labor Relations) wage restitution and deposit process. We found Labor Relations has weak internal controls over their Deposit account. Our objective was to gain an understanding of the deposit process and determine whether the controls used to administer and distribute restitution payments were...

We audited the Office of Sustainable Housing and Communities’ implementation of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) partnership with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to coordinate Federal weatherization efforts nationwide. This audit was part of our fiscal year 2010 audit plan. Our objective was to determine whether HUD multifamily properties were eligible to receive American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding...

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 – 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...

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) oversight of tenants who improperly received multiple housing subsidies in the Section 8 and public housing programs. Our objective was to determine whether HUD ensured that housing authorities resolved items listed on the Enterprise Income Verification (EIV) system’s multiple subsidy...

We audited the Housing Authority of the County of San Bernardino’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 Public Housing Capital Fund formula and competitive grants. We performed the audit because Recovery Act reviews are part of the Office of Inspector General’s (OIG) annual plan and the Los Angeles Office Public Housing’s 2011 risk assessment rated the Authority as high risk based on data from the Authority’s most recent Real Estate...