Take appropriate steps to establish eligibility for collection termination or compromise for 10 debts totaling $1,210,278,5 including three debts that were closed without required DOJ approval. For debts that have a remaining appropriate means of collection, such as demand letters, administrative offset, or referral to Treasury, HUD should reinstate the debt and resume collections.

Conduct a complete analysis of existing procedures to strengthen controls over debt collection, including HUD’s Treasury Reports of Receivables reporting, resulting in funds to be put to better use of $3,247,078. Controls should include additional procedures for ensuring that DOJ approval is obtained when required, that all appropriate means of collection have been pursued (including referral to Treasury when required), and that all closed debts are tracked and were properly authorized for collection termination or forgiveness. The analysis should also include a review of HUD’s Treasury Reports on Receivables, and any other available records to verify that all closed debts were properly approved for collection termination or forgiveness when required. For any identified debts that were not properly approved, the Departmental Claims Collection Officer should coordinate with applicable program offices to obtain appropriate documentation to approve collection termination or reinstate the debt and resume collections.

Determine legal sufficiency and if legally sufficient, pursue civil and administrative remedies, civil money penalties, or both against Venta, its principals, or both for incorrectly certifying to the eligibility for FHA mortgage insurance or that due diligence was exercised during the origination of FHA loans.

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.

Acknowledge that $250,000 of the $1,025,000 in the attached settlement represents an amount due HUD, less the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) civil debt collection fees.

Reevaluate the feasibility of the project to determine the eligibility of the $1,014,211 in State Block Grant funds disbursed. If HUD determines that the project has been canceled or is not feasible, the Government of Puerto Rico or its designee must reimburse all project costs to its State Block Grant program from non-Federal funds.

Instruct the Office for the Socioeconomic and Community Development to submit a plan for how it will proceed with the fine arts center project. The plan should include a schedule that HUD can track to ensure the project’s completion without proposing the use of additional HUD funds.

We recommend that HUD’s Deputy Assistant Secretary for Grant Programs direct the State to provide documentation to show that the $18,782,054 used for four activities was for eligible and supported costs and did not duplicate other benefits or repay from non-Federal funds any amount that it cannot support.

We recommend that HUD’s Deputy Assistant Secretary for Grant Programs direct the State to Implement procedures to ensure that remaining program costs reimbursed with disaster recovery funds are adequately reviewed for eligibility and support, thereby putting up to $8,932,630 to better use.

We recommend that HUD’s Deputy Assistant Secretary for Grant Programs direct the State to provide training to its staff on applicable HUD and Federal requirements for eligibility, documentation of costs, and duplication of benefits reviews.

Identify and implement a method to ensure that eligible RCFs receive database adjustments when appropriate under local code

Identify and implement a method to ensure that HUD does not instruct facilities to negate safety features

Identify and implement a method that ensures the expeditious followup inspection of RCFs