This report presents the results of our audit of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) fiscal year 2017 compliance with the Improper Payments Elimination and Recovery Act of 2010 (IPERA). Fiscal year 2017 marked the fifth consecutive year in which we determined that HUD did not comply with IPERA.  We reviewed HUD’s compliance with the six IPERA requirements.  Of the six IPERA requirements, HUD did not comply…

We conducted an attestation review of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Special Needs Assistance Continuum of Care Program, regarding reporting of drug control accounting and associated management assertions for fiscal year 2017.  The objective of our attestation review was to and to provide negative assurance on HUD’s drug control accounting reporting to the Office of National Drug Control Policy (…

We audited information system controls over the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) computing environment.  This review was conducted as part of our audit of HUD’s financial statements for fiscal year 2017 under the Chief Financial Officer’s Act of 1990.  Our objective was to assess general controls over HUD’s computing environment for compliance with HUD information technology policies and Federal information…

We audited general and application controls over selected Federal Housing Administration (FHA) information systems and the credit reform estimation and reestimation process as part of the internal control assessments required for the fiscal year 2017 financial statement audit under the Chief Financial Officer’s Act of 1990.  Our objective was to review the controls for compliance with U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)…

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of Inspector General (HUD OIG), has completed its annual risk assessment of HUD’s charge cards as required by the Government Charge Card Abuse Prevention Act of 2012, Public Law 112-194, and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Memorandum M-13-21.  Our objective was to analyze the risks of illegal, improper, or erroneous purchases in HUD’s fiscal year 2016 travel and purchase…

This briefing paper highlights challenges the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) faces in managing and improving its Information Technology (IT) program.  This document analyzed past HUD OIG and GAO IT related reports and recommendations to highlight key management challenges in HUD’s IT program. We are highlighting these challenges so HUD leadership is aware of and can be better prepared to address them. The OIG has…

HUD has a contract with Leidos Innovations Corporation for E-Discovery services using the E-Discovery Management System.  The process for collecting electronically stored information (ESI) and delivering it to customers has two major subprocesses: (1) an initial ESI collection and (2) a keyword search to refine the initial collection results.  OGC’s and Leidos’ collection of ESI does not meet customer demand because processing ESI…

In accordance with the Chief Financial Officers Act of 1990, as amended, we are required to annually audit the consolidated financial statements of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the stand-alone financial statements of the Federal Housing Administration and the Government National Mortgage Administration (Ginnie Mae). Our objective was to express an opinion on the fairness of HUD’s consolidated financial…

This report was reissued on December 6, 2017 to correct an error in recommendation 2G found in Finding 2.  Recommendation 2G now reflects the correct prior year recommendation that must be reopened. We are required to audit the consolidated financial statements of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) annually in accordance with the Chief Financial Officers Act of 1990 as amended. This report supplements our…

In accordance with the statutory requirements of the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act of 2014 (DATA Act) and standards established by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), we audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Office of the Chief Financial Officer’s (OCFO) compliance with the DATA Act for the second quarter of fiscal year 2017. In the DATA Act Compliance Audit of the U.S. Department of Housing…

The Federal Information Security Modernization Act of 2014 (FISMA) directs Inspectors General to conduct an annual evaluation of the agency information security program.  FISMA, Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) establish information technology (IT) security guidance and standards for Federal agencies. We conducted this evaluation to assess…

We audited the functionality of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) New Core Financial Management Solution as part of the internal control assessments required for the fiscal year 2017 financial statement audit under the Chief Financial Officer’s Act of 1990.  Our objective was to determine whether effective business processes and interface processing controls were in place for the New Core Financial Management…

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General audited the HUD’s travel and purchase card programs for fiscal year 2016 based on (1) our annual risk assessment of these programs and (2) our requirement under the Charge Card Abuse Prevention Act of 2012 to periodically review government travel and purchase cards.  The most recent risk assessment found that there was a moderate risk of illegal,…

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General audited the HUD’s government purchase card program.  We initiated the review based on our participation in a collaborative effort with other inspectors general under the direction of the Council of Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE) to issue a consolidated report to the Office of Management and Budget on government purchase card use…

We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) process for forgiving debts and terminating debt collections based on an Office of Inspector General (OIG) preaudit analysis that noted potential violations of debt collection requirements related to disallowed costs in a prior OIG audit recommendation.  Our audit objective was to determine whether HUD complied with applicable requirements when forgiving debts and…

Very low REAC scores are not prevalent across ORCF’s portfolio.  The majority of RCFs that received a REAC score scored at least 80 on their last inspection, and more than three quarters scored at least 60.  Despite the small percentage of RCFs that scored below 31, we noticed an overall decline in REAC inspection scores across ORCF’s portfolio from 2000 to 2016. REAC has adopted an inspection process that applies uniformly to all…

Enforce the requirement for all HUD web applications and services to be approved and authorized by OCIO. The OIG has determined that the contents of this recommendation would not be appropriate for public disclosure and has therefore limited its distribution to selected officials. Corrective Action Taken In January 2023, HUD's Office of the Chief Information Officer developed and released a Web Applications Directive to all HUD program…

We received a referral from the Quality Assurance Division of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Philadelphia Homeownership Center concerning a borrower who allegedly made false statements to obtain Federal Housing Administration (FHA) mortgage insurance.  The borrower provided false and conflicting employment and income information, which was used in originating and obtaining an FHA loan.  Further, the…

We conducted an attestation review of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Special Needs Assistance Continuum of Care Program, regarding drug control accounting and associated management assertions for fiscal year 2016.  The objective of our attestation review was to evaluate HUD’s financial reporting and assertions for drug control funds to determine if its reporting was in compliance with regulations and…

Twenty-two Promise Zones were selected through three rounds of national competition. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), oversees 14 urban Promise Zones, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) oversees 8 rural and tribal Promise Zones. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) tasked HUD and USDA to lead the Promise Zone initiative and play essential roles in gathering information about progress in Promise Zones…