As part of the Office of Inspector General’s (OIG) effort to provide oversight of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) relief efforts provided by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act), we reviewed HUD’s responses to inquiries regarding forbearance and foreclosure relief.  The objective of our review was to evaluate the accuracy of HUD’s responses to inquiries from borrowers, industry…

We audited the effectiveness of selected business process application-level general controls and data management controls over the Government National Mortgage Association (Ginnie Mae) Financial Accounting System (GFAS) and its subledger database (SLDB) component as part of the internal control assessments required for the fiscal year 2019 financial statements audit under the Chief Financial Officer’s Act of 1990. We also assessed selected…

We audited Mid America Mortgage’s, dba 1st Tribal Lending’s, Section 184 Indian Home Loan Guarantee program based on a previous U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General, audit and corrective action verification of the Section 184 program, which determined that HUD lacked proper oversight of the program and lenders did not always underwrite loans in accordance with HUD’s requirements.  The lender…

We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Federal Housing Administration, Home Affordable Modification Program’s (FHA-HAMP) policies for reporting nonincentivized loan modifications and filing partial claims.  The audit was a result of a prior Office of Inspector General (OIG) external review in which we identified delays in reporting FHA-HAMP nonincentivized loan modifications and filing partial claims.…

We conducted an attestation review of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Special Needs, Continuum of Care Homeless Assistance Grants Program, regarding drug control accounting and associated management assertions for fiscal year 2019.  As required by Federal statute 21 U.S.C. 1704(d)(1), we reviewed HUD’s drug control accounting, including its written assertions.  Our responsibility is to express a…

We audited the Palm Beach County Housing Authority in West Palm Beach, FL, based on concerns raised by news articles stating that the Authority dismissed its former executive director because of financial misconduct and ethical violations.  The concerns included bonuses paid and payments for contracted services.  Our audit objective was to determine whether the Authority spent U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)…

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General audited Federal Housing Administration (FHA)-insured loans from fiscal year 2018.  Our audit objective was to determine whether FHA provided insurance on loans that were made to ineligible, delinquent Federal tax debtors. We found that FHA insured at least 56,376 loans worth $13 billion, which were not eligible for insurance because they were made to…

We audited Summit Construction and Environmental Services, LLC, because we received an anonymous complaint alleging that Summit Construction (1) did not perform lead-based paint evaluations in a timely manner, (2) did not produce adequate lead-based paint inspection reports in accordance with applicable requirements, and (3) showed favoritism toward certain contractors performing lead-paint inspections.  Our objective was to determine…

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General audited the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) based on the results of another audit, which found that the lender improperly filed for partial claims before completing the loan modifications and reinstating the loans.  Our audit objective was to determine whether FHA improperly paid partial claims that did not reinstate the delinquent loans. We found…

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General audited Bank of America because it has released more than 47,000 Federal Housing Administration (FHA)-insured loans into the Distressed Asset Stabilization Program (DASP) note sales program.  Since its inception, DASP has facilitated the sale of more than 108,000 FHA loans, which means that Bank of America accounts for nearly half of the entire program…

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General (OIG), assisted the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of New York in a civil investigation of Gateway Funding Diversified Mortgage Services, LP, now known as Finance of America Mortgage, LLC (FAM).  Gateway was a Federal Housing Administration (FHA)-approved mortgage lender.  On May 31, 2015,…

We audited selected general and application controls over the Federal Housing Administration’s Computerized Homes Underwriting Management System as part of the internal control assessments required for the fiscal year 2018 financial statement audit under the Chief Financial Officer’s Act of 1990.  Our objective was to review the effectiveness of controls for compliance with HUD information technology policies and Federal information system…

We audited the general controls over the Integrated Pool Management System (IPMS) as part of the internal control assessments required for the fiscal year 2018 financial statements audit under the Chief Financial Officer’s Act of 1990.  Our objective was to evaluate and assess internal controls over the safeguarding of data, security, and continued operations in the event of unexpected interruptions.  Specifically, we examined the…

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General (OIG), assisted the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern and Western Districts of Washington in the civil investigation of Universal American Mortgage Company, LLC.  Our investigation was ongoing when a qui tam action was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington.  Universal…

This report presents the results of our audit of Ginnie Mae’s fiscal years 2018 and 2017 financial statements, including our report on Ginnie Mae’s internal control and test of compliance with selected provisions of laws and regulations applicable to Ginnie Mae. In fiscal year 2018, for the fifth consecutive year, we were unable to obtain sufficient, appropriate evidence to express an opinion on the fairness of the $3 billion (net of allowance)…

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Office of Inspector General (OIG) worked with HUD’s Office of Lender Activities and Program Compliance, Office of Single Family Housing, to resolve outstanding matters related to two September 2015 agreements with Fifth Third Bank (FTB) and its principal subsidiary, Fifth Third Bancorp, an Ohio-based bank holding company.  HUD failed to properly record required indemnifications in…

We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Federal Housing Administration’s (FHA) preforeclosure sale claim process based on an internal Office of Inspector General audit suggestion noting that existing regulations may allow excessive preforeclosure claim interest costs.  Our audit objective was to determine the amount of unnecessary preforeclosure claim interest and other costs that resulted from lender…

We performed a review of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Housing Counseling Program, located within the Office of Housing Counseling.  We selected this program based on an audit suggestion that was included in our annual audit plan to help address HUD’s strategic goal to strengthen the housing market to bolster the economy and protect consumers.  Our objective was to determine whether HUD adequately…

We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) tracking of partial claim notes.  The audit was initiated in response to an Office of Inspector General preaudit analysis of HUD’s Single Family Data Warehouse (SFDW) data, which determined that partial claim notes may not have been properly tracked in HUD’s Single Family Mortgage Asset Recovery Technology (SMART) system (see Scope & Methodology section for…

The U.S. Department of Housing Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General audited HUD to determine whether it identified and collected outstanding partial claims out of surplus proceeds from nonconveyance foreclosures.  We initiated this audit because we learned while doing unrelated audit work that a trustee attorney held surplus proceeds from two nonconveyance foreclosures and HUD had not claimed these funds to offset earlier…