Implement a process to identify teleworkers most at risk of receiving incorrect locality payments, verify that their official duty stations are correct and they are reporting to their official duty stations as required, and if necessary, correct their locality payments.

Determine how to measure the impact of recruitment efforts related to individuals who identiy as Hispanic or Latino.

Implement a process to measure the impact of recruitment efforts related to individuals who identify as Hispanic or Latino.

Implement a process to collect and maintain information about recruitment efforts related to indiviuals who identify as Hispanic or Latino from all HUD program offices and their respective field offices.

We recommend that the Deputy Secretary Develop and execute a detailed plan and timeline for both testing and reporting estimates of improper payments in the PIH-TBRA and PBRA programs in compliance with Federal law and OMB guidance.

Status

In response to the Management Alert, the Deputy Secretary stated that she would provide a plan in 30 days. On April 10, 2024, the Chief Financial Officer, Assistant Secretary for Housing, and Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public and Indian Housing (PIH) stated their respective executives have been working together to develop a plan to accelerate HUD’s ability to produce statistically valid estimates. With respect to project-based rental assistance (PBRA), HUD plans to use ongoing data collection for fiscal year (FY) 2023 tier 1 and tier 2 payments to develop a statistical estimate in FY 2024. With respect to PIH-TBRA, in lieu of pursuing an estimate for the FY 2024 reporting cycle, PIH will focus on “its existing efforts to enhance PIH [IT] systems”, which HUD considers to be a more strategic use of resources. It is not clear from HUD’s response what PIH will do differently than it already had planned prior to the management alert as HUD did not provide a detailed plan or timeline for OIG review. As of June 21, 2024, a detailed plan or timeline has not been provided.

Analysis

As of June 21, 2024, HUD has not provided a detailed plan or timeline for OIG review. It remains unclear how HUD will produce an estimate in the PBRA programs in 2024 and when it will be able to produce an estimate for PIH-TBRA.

For HUD to close this recommendation, it must finish testing the full life cycle of payments in these programs and publicly report estimates of the improper payments in them. Merely producing a plan with future action target dates is not sufficient to meet the spirit of this recommendation.

PBRA and PIH-TBRA are the two largest program expenditures in HUD's portfolio, totaling $45.3 billion in FY 23, or 67.5 percent of HUD's total expenditures. HUD has been challenged with developing a compliant sampling methodology that can test the full payment cycle and that can be executed within the required timeframes. HUD’s sampling methodology did not test the full payment cycle. Further, the associated sample testing and statistical estimation of improper payments could not be completed in time for the required annual reporting of improper payment estimates in the Agency Financial Report (AFR), normally issued in November. To fully address this recommendation, the sampling methodology should test the full payment cycle, and the associated sample testing and statistical estimation must be completed in time to be included in the AFR.

Implementation of this recommendation will result in HUD better safeguarding taxpayer dollars and decrease improper payments.

Implement a transparent process for reviewing open-ended exit survey results and sharing those results with ODEEO, as appropriate, and program offices while still protecting former employees’ confidentiality.

Assess what departing employees mean when they indicate that organizational culture is a motivation for leaving HUD.

Develop guidance for the program offices to identify the causes behind high attrition rates in governmentwide high-risk MCOs and field offices in large cities.

Develop guidance for program offices to develop program office-specific action plans to address any causes found for high attrition rates in governmentwide high-risk MCOs and field offices in large cities.

Create a single, unified agency-specific MCO list updated to reflect current progress toward closing skills gaps.

Standardize position descriptions and job analyses for mission-critical occupations, high-risk occupations, and positions with high-volume staffing needs.

Develop and share best practices with HUD’s program offices on how hiring managers can execute hiring process responsibilities to meet timeliness goals.

Determine the cause for the variations in the timeliness of the preemployment and security checks step in FY 2017, 2018, and 2019 and develop appropriate process improvements.

Develop and document comprehensive reference documents on the hiring processes, procedures, roles, and responsibilities.

Develop and implement regular training for process owners on the hiring process.

Create and implement a knowledge management strategy, such as developing standard operating procedures, reference sheets, and program office fact sheets.

Corrective Action Taken

OCHCO developed and implemented client profiles for each HUD program office to address knowledge loss and the need for offices to explain or reexplain their mission and functions. The profiles will serve as a central repository to learn about the various programs and missions of HUD and will allow OCHCO staff, other key HUD pro

Conduct a feasibility study for an automated POL.

Develop and implement time-to-hire goals that account for each hiring process step.

Develop and document methodologies on how OCHCO calculates hiring metrics to ensure that its hiring metrics and hiring goals align across all of its data sources, including the POL, the human capital dashboard, and the HCOP.

Track the quality of candidates as measured by the hiring officials.