Research, develop, and implement policies and procedures to reduce the number of refunds that have remained unclaimed for an extended period, including consideration of a statute of limitations.

Develop and implement written policies and procedures regarding the designation of legal representation for applicants.

Obtain the required approvals under the Paperwork Reduction Act for the insert document mailed with the refund application and the Tracer Found Case form.

Perform data analysis of FHA’s portfolio to identify borrowers who are delinquent and did not fully benefit from the COVID-19 forbearance, including those in bankruptcy;

Develop a standardized brochure or informational pamphlet that would inform delinquent borrowers of their right to a forbearance under the CARES Act; and

Ensure that this information is distributed to delinquent borrowers so it can benefit the greatest number of borrowers to put $5.43 billion to better use by avoiding potential future losses on 112,160 loans.

Review the 21 loans with improperly administered forbearance to ensure that the borrowers were remedied by the servicers, if possible, and ensure that these servicers updated their forbearance procedures to prevent future noncompliance.

Ensure that the issues found during our audit are incorporated into QAD’s servicing monitoring reviews.

Provide additional guidance to the servicers so they will limit their communication and collection efforts for the borrowers in forbearance.

We recommend that the Office of Single Family Housing coordinate its efforts with the Office of Public and Indian Housing and the Office of Multifamily Housing Programs to further ensure that appropriate controls are in place to prevent HECM borrowers from violating principal residency requirements.

Request an opinion from HUD’s Office of the Chief Financial Officer’s Appropriation Law Division on whether the abnormal balance in account 4901 constitutes a violation of the Antideficiency Act.

Enhance standard operating procedures around system and account reconciliations to ensure that they cover all possible scenarios and are easy to follow.

Appropriately train and monitor new personnel to ensure that they understand and execute the procedures and controls.

Update procedures to clearly define error thresholds that require follow-up and the communication process for elevating errors to supervisors, managers, and senior leadership.

Establish clear lines of communication within and between divisions to ensure that all personnel become aware of issues that may impact their duties and responsibilities.

Strengthen controls over the preparation of HECM-related reconciliations, reviews, and oversight by ensuring that (1) program personnel preparing such reconciliations understand how such reconciliations impact financial accounting and reporting and (2) financial personnel sufficiently understand programs and systems to determine their general ledger impact.

Enhance the quarterly variance analysis to identify the business reasons for changes in account balances and pay specific attention to abnormal balances and activity.

Strengthen the financial statement review controls by completing a compliance matrix to ensure all balances that are presented and disclosed reflect the most up-to-date financial accounting and reporting guidance.

Perform a comprehensive analysis for all cohort years and assess the impact that the use of the scheduled UPB instead of the current UPB has on the LGL. If significant based on a quantitative threshold, update the SF cash flow model to incorporate the current UPB data.

Develop and implement a new process to require the annual validation of the fourth quarter endorsement volume estimation method for the SF Forward model. The process should include a management review and approval control component. The process should be documented and should demonstrate that management’s estimate is based on the analysis of past experiences, current policy, and market considerations, and, if necessary, incorporate improvement recommendations.