We audited the City of West Palm Beach’s HOME Investment Partnerships Program.  The City was selected for review because (1) our audit plan included audits of HOME grantees, (2) the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Miami Office of Community Planning and Development ranked the City as high risk in its 2012 risk assessment, and (3) the most recent HUD monitoring review in 2012 identified concerns with the City’s…

We audited the City of Toledo’s Community Development Block Grant funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 as part of the activities in our fiscal year 2013 annual audit plan.  We selected the City’s Block Grant based upon recent media attention regarding the City’s programs, a request by the Honorable Marcy Kaptur, and a referral from the Office of Inspector General’s Office of Investigation.  Our objective was…

We audited the City of Auburn, NY’s Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program based on an Office of Inspector General risk analysis that considered the amount of funding the City had available to expend.  The objectives of the audit were to determine whether the City had (1) established and implemented the necessary controls to ensure that program activities were adequately documented and administered in accordance with U.S.…

We initiated a review of the City of Hawthorne’s Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) and CDBG-Recovery Act (CDBG-R) program, based on a request by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Los Angeles Office of Community Planning and Development.  Our objective was to determine whether the City adequately supported its salary and program administrative cost allocations to the CDBG and CDBG-R programs in accordance…

We reviewed the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Office of Community Planning and Development’s (CPD) risk assessment procedures as they relate to subrecipient involvement in CPD programs.  We initiated the audit due to observations by HUD Office of Inspector General (OIG) auditors of frequent subrecipient-related findings in CPD external audits.  Our objective was to determine whether CPD’s risk assessments…

We audited the City of Worcester’s administration of its Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program.  We selected the City for review based on a request from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Boston, MA, Office of Community Planning and Development.  The objectives of the audit were to determine whether the City established adequate controls to ensure that the CDBG activities were eligible and supported…

We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) monitoring of grantee compliance with the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) timeliness spending requirement.  The objectives of the audit were to determine whether HUD’s guidance for ensuring compliance with the CDBG entitlement spending requirement had been implemented effectively by the field offices; specifically, whether HUD needs to implement additional…

We completed the 17th audit report in our ongoing review of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation’s (LMDC) administration of the $2.783 billion in Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Disaster Recovery Assistance funds awarded to the State of New York in the aftermath of the September 11, 2011, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City.  During the audit period, April 1, 2011 through March 31, 2012, LMDC…

We audited the City of Santa Ana’s Neighborhood Stabilization Program 2 (NSP2).  We initiated the audit as part of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General’s (OIG) fiscal year 2012-2013 annual audit plan.  Our objective was to determine whether the City administered its program funds in accordance with applicable HUD rules and requirements.  Specifically, our focus was to determine…

We audited the City of Sarasota because it was awarded $23 million in Neighborhood Stabilization Program 2 (NSP2) funds and it was in accordance with our audit plan to review funds provided under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Our objective was to determine whether the City administered its NSP2 in accordance with applicable Federal requirements. Specifically, we wanted to determine whether (1) approved activities met a…

We completed a follow-up review regarding our recommendations made to the U.S. Department of Housing Urban and Development’s (HUD) Office of Community Planning and Development (CPD) pertaining to our inspection of the State of Louisiana’s Road Home Elevation Incentive program, IED-09-002, issued in March 2010. The objective of the review was to determine whether the State of Louisiana had implemented the four recommendations in our March 2010…

We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) State Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Hurricane Disaster Recovery program for hurricanes that hit the Gulf Coast States from August 2005 through September 2008. Our audit objective was to assess the program overall. Specifically, we wanted to (1) determine what had been accomplished using the funding and the funds remaining to be spent; (2) compare actual versus…

We audited the City of Paterson, NJ’s Housing Opportunities for Persons With AIDS (HOPWA) program in support of the Office of Inspector General’s (OIG) goal to contribute to improving HUD’s execution of its fiscal responsibilities. We selected the City after a risk analysis of HOPWA grantees administered by the HUD Newark, NJ, field office that considered funding, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) 2011 risk…

We audited the City of Albany, NY’s administration of its supplemental Community Development Block Grant program funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (CDBG-R). The objectives were to determine whether the City administered its CDBG-R program effectively, efficiently, and economically in accordance with applicable rules and regulations, including the Recovery Act, and other U.S. Department of Housing and Urban…

We audited Morris County, NJ’s Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program based on a risk assessment, which considered the size of the program, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) risk analysis, and prior audit coverage. The objectives of the audit were to determine whether County officials established adequate controls to ensure that CDBG funds were expended for eligible activities and that the program was…

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) – Office of Inspector General audited the Idaho Housing and Finance Association’s HOME Investment Partnerships Program because it received approximately $6 million in HOME grants from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in each of fiscal years 2008 through 2010. The objective of our review was to determine whether Idaho Housing complied with HOME match fund and…

We audited the City of Baltimore, MD's Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program grant because (1) its $9.5 million grant was the largest grant in the State of Maryland, (2) it had disbursed $6.6 million of its grant funds as of December 2011, and (3) we have a mandate to audit American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 activities. The audit objective was to determine whether the City properly obligated and expended grant…

We audited Luzerne County, PA’s $6 million loan of Community Development Block Grant funds to CityVest that was expected to be used to revitalize the historic Hotel Sterling and surrounding properties. We did the audit because HUD Office of Inspector General audit report 2012-PH-0001 identified this long standing open Block Grant activity and because we received a citizen complaint alleging possible misappropriation of these funds. Our…

We reviewed HUD’s monitoring of the Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program (HPRP) in support of HUD OIG’s audit plan goals to oversee Recovery Act-funded activity and improve HUD’s execution of and accountability for fiscal responsibilities. The objective of the audit was to determine whether HUD had established adequate controls to (1) ensure that grantees complied with Recovery Act expenditure and performance reporting…

We completed a review of the Village of Spring Valley, NY, a subrecipient of Rockland County, NY. We selected this auditee based on a hotline complaint that was referred from the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) OIG, Complaint Number Z-12-0445-1, received on February 14, 2012. The complaint alleged that the Village (1) used eminent domain and Federal funds to seize property, (2) transferred ownership of properties to a developer to be…