U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government Here’s how you know

The .gov means it’s official.

Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you're on a federal government site.

The site is secure.

The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Hotline

Report Fraud, Waste and Abuse
December 18, 2012
  • Chief Financial Officer
2013-DP-0003
2013-dp-0003.pdf

We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) plans and procedures for data conversion and system interfaces for the implementation of the HUD Integrated Core Financial System (ICFS). We conducted this audit as a component of the testing of general and technical controls for information systems in connection with the annual audit of HUD’s consolidated financial statements.

HUD’s effort to modernize its financial management system is called the HUD Integrated Financial Management Improvement Project (HIFMIP). One goal of HIFMIP was to create ICFS, and replace only two of the five financial management systems that HUD uses to accomplish the core financial system functions. The OCFO did not properly plan and manage the implementation of ICFS. Since 2003, HUD has spent more than $35 million on HIFMIP and does not have an operational new core financial system. The initial vision document was initiated in 2003 and issued in 2004. The contract was awarded in September 2010. Before executing the contract, OCFO did not update Project information, follow up with system owners to ensure that required actions were completed, plan for the conversion of public and Indian housing data within the HUD Central Accounting and Program System, set up a Project performance measurement baseline for each data conversion cycle, and ensure that the scope of the conversion in the conversion plan would meet HUD’s needs and comply with the contract. Also, OCFO did not ensure that key staff and program office stakeholders were involved in pertinent decisions, establish an effective deliverable approval process, ensure that converted data were verified by an independent verification and validation contractor, and verify that the contractor complied with the scope of the conversion. Base period performance goals and objectives were not met and additional time and funding will be needed to complete the project.

We recommend that the Deputy Secretary reevaluate the interface approach documents and the data conversion plan to ensure that tasks for each section have been adequately completed by HUD’s Integrated Financial Management Improvement Project contractor and verified by OCFO. Specifically, the Office of the Chief Financial Officer (OCFO) should complete end-to-end testing of the interface processes, secure an independent verification and validation contractor for data conversion validation, coordinate with program offices to ensure that interface systems are compatible, and ensure that the current financial applications are available until a compatible application is complete.