Establish and implement an effective system to ensure that payments do not exceed approved contract values.

Establish and implement an effective system to maintain a complete and accurate contract register to ensure proper contract planning and administration.

Provide technical assistance to the Authority to ensure that responsible staff and board members receive necessary procurement training.

Work with HUD to nullify the restrictions on conveyance that violate HUD policy or indemnify HUD. This action will protect HUD against future losses of $418,277 for the eight loans.

Repay HUD $5,482 for partial claims paid on two FHA loans that contained prohibited restrictive covenants.

Develop and implement policies and procedures to identify prohibited restrictions on conveyance to ensure that it does not originate FHA loans with prohibited restrictive covenants.

Provide training to its employees regarding HUD’s requirements related to prohibited restrictions on conveyance.

We recommend that the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Single Family Housing require MB Financial to indemnify HUD against potential losses of $178,811 for the four loans that did not comply with underwriting requirements (appendix C). HUD provided us copies of the four executed indemnification agreements in August and September 2017. Therefore, upon issuance of this report, we will enter a management decision into HUD’s Audit Resolution and Corrective Action Tracking System, along with copies of the indemnification agreements, and close this recommendation.

We recommend that the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Single Family Housing require MB Financial to provide training to its underwriters on HUD’s underwriting requirements for approving and rejecting loans.

We recommend that the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Single Family Housing require MB Financial to update its policies and procedures to ensure that its staff understands underwriting requirements and the requirement that loans be manually underwritten when a refer decision is received from automated underwriting systems or when a loan is downgraded to a manual underwrite.

We recommend that the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Single Family Housing require MB Financial to update its quality control plan to include the specific procedures to be used when reviewing rejected loan applications.

Revise servicing review and monitoring policies and procedures to emphasize increased controls on reviewing claim loans showing that no loss mitigation evaluation occurred. Revising the policies and procedures would reduce the risk to HUD and result in a projected $120,902,564 in funds to be put to better use (appendix A).

Develop and implement policies and procedures to ensure that the Office of Single Family Asset Management and Office of Lender Activities and Program Compliance communicate the results of their servicing reviews to each other.

Update and revise policies and procedures, including reinforcement of guidance (for example, mortgagee letters, notifications to servicers, or training) to ensure that servicers accurately report the status of delinquent loans to HUD.

Require indemnification for the 26 loans that had significant servicing deficiencies. In these cases, the loss to HUD was $1,673,117 (appendixes A and D).

Reinforce existing guidance (such as mortgagee letters, notifications to servicers, and training) to servicers to ensure that they engage in required loss mitigation.

Require that the servicers with significant and other deficiencies revise and update their policies and procedures, as necessary, to ensure that they comply with HUD requirements and guidance on loss mitigation evaluation.

Finalize and implement monitoring procedures to ensure that $6,324,625 in flat rents are appropriately charged to tenants over the next year.

Follow up with the housing authorities in our sample, identified as noncompliant with flat rent requirements, to ensure that their rents are properly adjusted.

Clarify guidance to better enhance housing authority understanding of the requirement, including explaining that housing authorities must code ceiling rent tenants as flat rents and explaining what housing authorities should do when maximum rents for low-income housing tax credit properties are lower than the minimum flat rent amounts required by HUD.