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Report Fraud, Waste and Abuse
May 11, 2017
2017-FO-0006
2017-FO-0006.pdf

This report presents the results of our audit of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) fiscal year 2016 compliance with the Improper Payments Elimination and Recovery Act of 2010 (IPERA).

For the fourth consecutive fiscal year,  we determined that HUD did not comply with IPERA.  Of the six requirements, HUD complied with four (compliance determinations a, c, d, and f) and did not comply with the remaining two (compliance determinations b and e).  HUD also did not comply with IPERA in fiscal years 2013, 2014, and 2015.  Specific areas of noncompliance for fiscal year 2016 were related to HUD’s failure to (1) conduct an annual risk assessment in accordance with the Office of Management and Budget guidance and (2) meet its annual improper payment reduction target.  This was the same issue we noted in our fiscal year 2015 audit report.  Additionally, we found similar issues again in fiscal year 2016 concerning (1) the completeness and reliability of HUD’s improper payment data reporting, including payment recapture audit plans, and (2) the reliability of HUD’s improper payment estimate for its Rental Housing Assistance Programs.

We made five new recommendations in this year’s report to address new issues identified.  We expect these recommendations will help remediate issues identified in HUD’s payment recapture audit plans and reporting of improper payment information in the agency financial report.

Recommendations

Chief Financial Officer

  •  
    Status
      Open
      Closed
    2017-FO-0006-001-A
    Closed on March 01, 2018

    Ensure that all payments to Federal employees are included in HUD’s periodic risk assessment cycle.

  •  
    Status
      Open
      Closed
    2017-FO-0006-001-B
    Closed on June 17, 2019

    Establish and implement procedures and controls, in coordination with FHA, to ensure that FHA information reported in the AFR is accurate and consistent with supporting documents.

  •  
    Status
      Open
      Closed
    2017-FO-0006-004-A
    Closed on April 05, 2019

    Develop and implement steps to ensure that the description of corrective actions highlights current efforts and key milestones for ongoing efforts and explain in the AFR how it specifically tailored its corrective actions to better reflect the unique processes, procedures, and risks involved with RHAP as required by OMB.

  •  
    Status
      Open
      Closed
    2017-FO-0006-004-B
    Closed on April 05, 2019

    Develop and implement steps to ensure that adequate disclosures are made when future-year reduction targets for improper payments reported in the AFR are higher than the current-year improper payment estimates.

  •  
    Status
      Open
      Closed
    2017-FO-0006-004-C
    Closed on March 21, 2019

    Disclose in the AFR the results of HUD’s review concerning its current performance against program-specific improper payment reduction targets to promote transparency.