We audited the City of Providence RI’s HOME Investment Partnerships program based on an OIG risk assessment, which ranked the City as the highest risk HOME grantee in New England.  The objective of the audit was to determine whether the City properly committed and disbursed HOME funds in accordance with Federal and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) rules and regulations. City officials did not properly administer their...

We audited BLM Companies LLC, a contracted field service manager in HUD’s real estate-owned Management and Marketing III program, as part of the activities included in our 2017 annual audit plan and because it was the sole contractor performing property preservation and protection services for U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)-acquired properties located in Ohio.  Our audit objective was to determine whether BLM...

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General (OIG), assisted the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts in the civil investigation of First American Mortgage Trust.  First American has its principal place of business in Brighton, MA, and does business as NXTLoan.Com Corp., a Delaware corporation.  First American is the parent company of NXTL. On October 18, 2016, First...

We conducted an audit of BLM Companies LLC’s controls and performance under its Management and Marketing III program field service manager contract with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for area 1D.  Area 1D included HUD real estate-owned and custodial properties in New Mexico, North Texas, Utah, and Colorado.  During the audit period, BLM held 7 of 18 HUD field service manager contracts throughout the Nation...

We audited the Housing Choice Voucher and public housing programs at the West Warwick Housing Authority as a result of concerns from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and a hotline complaint.  The audit objectives were to determine whether (1) procurements were executed in accordance with Federal regulations, (2) West Warwick officials established adequate controls over the Housing Choice Voucher and public housing...

We audited Health Concepts Ltd., a management agent that administers six Federal Housing Administration (FHA)-insured nursing homes.  We conducted this audit based on our review of the Pine Grove Health Center.  The review found that Pine Grove’s owners paid salaries for onsite staff that were covered under the management agreement and charged for services that should have been included in the management fee.  Our objectives for...

We audited the Housing Choice Voucher program at the Boston Housing Authority because of the size of the program, the time that had elapsed since our last audit, and the inherent program risk.  The Authority operates the second largest Housing Choice Voucher program in New England.  In addition, our office had not audited any Authority program since 2010.  The Housing Choice Voucher program is inherently risky as Congress...

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General (OIG), assisted the U.S. Department of Justice, Washington, DC, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey in a civil investigation of Security National Mortgage Company.  Security National is a Federal Housing Administration (FHA)-approved mortgage lender with its principal place of business located in Salt Lake City, UT. On...

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General audited Village North Apartments in Salt Lake City, Utah based on concerns that surfaced during another assignment when it appeared as though Village North might have moved tenants in and out of units and collected housing assistance payments for them without changing the social security numbers or birthdates for the new tenants.  The objective of our...

We audited the Federal Housing Administration-insured Burrillville Nursing Home, Incorporated, doing business as Pine Grove Health Center, based on a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General risk assessment.  Additionally, HUD identified Pine Grove as a high financial risk and a potentially troubled facility, and Pine Grove’s auditors reported substantial doubt regarding its ability to continue as...

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General (OIG), assisted the U.S. Department of Justice, Washington, DC, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Colorado, in the civil investigation of Primary Residential Mortgage, Inc.  Primary has its principal place of business in Salt Lake City, UT.  Primary became an FHA-approved direct endorsement lender on October 15, 1998.  The direct...

We audited the Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) assistance grant provided to the City of Springfield, MA, by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to assist in disaster recovery and rebuilding efforts resulting from damages caused by presidentially declared disasters.  The audit objective was to determine whether the City properly followed Federal procurement requirements and whether...

Sons of Divine Providence did not properly oversee the HUD-insured nursing home to ensure that it operated in accordance with its regulatory agreement.  By not informing HUD of the lawsuits, the changes in management agents, and the loans, Sons of Divine Providence did not provide HUD the necessary data to understand the risk to the HUD insurance fund.  However, when Sons of Divine Providence sold the nursing home and paid off the HUD...

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General audited the University Village, LLC in Orem Utah based on previous violations identified by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) that found ineligible withdrawals and substandard physical conditions at the property.  The objective of our audit was to determine whether University Village complied with its HUD multifamily Federal...

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Office of Inspector General (OIG) investigated alleged violations of Federal Housing Administration (FHA) regulations by RANlife, Inc.  We reviewed the single-family FHA loan files processed by RANlife to determine whether it complied with HUD’s rules and regulations in originating, underwriting, and endorsing the loans for FHA insurance. On November, 23, 2015, RANlife entered...

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...

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General audited the Housing Authority of the County of Salt Lake Public Housing Capital Fund grants for fiscal years 2011-2014.  We initiated this audit due to the amount of funding the Authority received during our review period.  The Authority is the highest funded public housing agency in the State of Utah.  The objective of our audit was to...

We audited the Somerville Housing Authority’s public housing and Public Housing Capital Fund programs as part of our fiscal year 2016 regional audit plan.  We initiated our review because the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Boston Office of Public and Indian Housing had not monitored the programs in the past 5 years and we had not audited the Authority in the past 10 years.  Our audit objectives were to...

We audited the Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) assistance grant provided to the State of Rhode Island by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to assist in disaster recovery and rebuilding efforts resulting from damages caused by Hurricane Sandy.  The audit objective was to determine whether State officials obligated and disbursed the grant funds in a timely manner in accordance with HUD...

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General (OIG) assisted the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of California in the civil investigation of Iron Mountain, Incorporated, and Iron Mountain Information Management, LLC (Iron Mountain).  Iron Mountain is headquartered in Boston, MA.  The investigation began due to a qui tam[1] filing in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern...