We audited the City of San Bernardino, CA’s HOME Investment Partnerships program.  We audited the City based on the Region 9 Office of Inspector General’s 2016 risk analysis of Los Angeles area community planning and development grantees.  In addition, although the County of San Bernardino had been administering the City’s recent HOME grants, the City still had several of its own HOME activities underway and others that had closed within the past 2 years.  Our audit objective was to determine whether the City administered its HOME program in accordance with HUD requirements.

The City did not fully administer its HOME program in accordance with HUD requirements.  For the most part, the City used its HOME funding in accordance with program requirements.  However, accounting and drawdown errors resulted in $22,402 in duplicative overcharges to the program.  This error was due to the City’s not having adequate policies, procedures, and controls to ensure that HOME draws were accurate and in accordance with HUD requirements.  As a result, these funds were not available to carry out eligible HOME activities.

We recommend that the Director of HUD’s Los Angeles Office of Community Planning and Development require the City to (1) repay its program $22,402 for erroneous costs charged to HOME activity 2292 from non-Federal funds and (2) update and implement changes to its policies and procedures to prevent similar errors and ensure that HOME draws are accurate and in accordance with HUD requirements.