Verify with ARC on a regular basis that all travel cardholders have completed their training as required.

Require justification and approval for selecting a nonrefundable rate in the travel system comments section.

Generate a periodic monitoring report that would identify employees who did not use their government travel card when required and send this report to employees’ supervisors and the Assistant Secretary of related program offices for proper action.

Require justification and approval in the travel system comments section when requesting lodging expense reimbursement to the traveler’s bank account.

Update HUD’s travel card policy to require approving officials’ review of travel documents for appropriate methods of payment and work with the Office of Employee Labor Relations and the Office of the Chief Human Capital Officer to prescribe disciplinary actions for not using the government travel card when required.

Inform all HUD travel cardholders and approving officials about the mandatory use of the government travel card and disciplinary actions for not using it.

Follow up with the 19 employees identified as failing to use their government travel card and coordinate with the related program offices to ensure these employees receive training, counseling or other appropriate disciplinary action, if necessary, on the mandatory use of the government travel card.

Work with the City of Denver Office of Economic Development to recapture $37,000 in HOME funds not properly used for the affordable housing projects.

Require Del Norte to develop policies and procedures to prevent ineligible affordability period transfers.

Implement adequate procedures and controls to ensure that all required data are complete, accurate, and reported in a timely manner. These procedures and controls should include but not be limited to ensuring that all transactions are recorded and reported within the proper period and listing the source of each of the data elements, including how to obtain the source documentation from HUD’s various program offices or systems.

Implement adequate procedures and controls to ensure that all data elements are traceable to the source documentation.

Revise internal DATA Act policy and procedure documents to resolve inconsistencies to ensure full, appropriate, and consistent implementation of the DATA Act.

We recommend that the Director of the Office of Block Grant Assistance require the Texas General Land Office to implement appropriate cost controls, including limits for reconstruction and rehabilitation costs, to ensure that it uses limited government resources in a more economical and efficient manner. Those costs should not exceed the costs that would be incurred by a prudent person under similar circumstances.

We recommend that the Director of the Office of Block Grant Assistance require the Texas General Land Office to evaluate whether its programs would benefit from a longer affordability period and take appropriate actions to ensure that low- and moderate-income communities have access to affordable homes for an adequate period.

We recommend that the Director of the Office of Block Grant Assistance require the Texas General Land Office to ensure that the tax burden implications are a part of the determination of whether to spend significantly more than the damaged home’s appraised value to replace the home. This measure would include ensuring that participants are fully informed of the substantial and material property tax consequences that they could incur based on the increased values of their reconstructed homes (appendix B).

Develop and implement a financial management system in accordance with HUD requirements, including but not limited to permitting the disbursement of funds in a timely manner.

Ensure that $1,045,085 in CDBG funds drawn from HUD between July 1, 2015, and October 31, 2018, can be traced to a level, which ensures that such funds have not been used in violation of the restrictions and prohibitions of applicable statutes, or reimburse the CDBG program from non-Federal funds. Footnote 2: Total drawdowns of more than $1.5 million were adjusted to consider $106 questioned in recommendation 1D and $469,974 in recommendation 2A.

Require the Municipality to return to its line of credit and put to better use $1,641 associated with the unspent program funds that have been carried over since December 2017.

Reimburse the CDBG program from non-Federal funds the $106 paid for ineligible bank penalties.

Establish and implement adequate controls and procedures to permit proper accountability for all CDBG funds to ensure that they are used solely for authorized purposes and properly safeguarded.