We audited the Commonwealth of Massachusetts’ (State) Small Cities Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program because the State was the largest recipient of CDBG funds in New England.  HUD awarded the State more than $88 million in CDBG funding for program years 2015, 2016, and 2017.  In addition, we had not audited any of the State’s community planning and development programs in the last 10 years.  Our audit objective was…

We audited the Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) assistance grant provided to the City of Springfield, MA, by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to assist in disaster recovery and rebuilding efforts resulting from damages caused by presidentially declared disasters.  The audit objective was to determine whether the City properly followed Federal procurement requirements and whether…

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 reviewed the administration expenses charged to the City of Brockton’s Community Development Block Grant in response to a complaint alleging that the City was charging the Community Development Block Grant program for City expenses. The objectives of our review were to determine whether the City (1) properly accounted for and reported its planning and administrative expenses for its Community Development Block Grant and (2) prepared accurate…

We reviewed The Community Builders, a nonprofit development and asset management firm that received a $78.6 million grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, Congress established the Neighborhood Stabilization Program 2 to grant funds to States, local governments, nonprofits, and a consortium of nonprofit entities for the purpose of stabilizing communities…

We reviewed the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Office of Community Planning and Development’s (CPD) risk assessment process. We initiated the review as part of the activities in our fiscal year 2010 annual audit plan. Our objective was to determine whether CPD had established and properly implemented a risk assessment process that used appropriate measures to determine risk and identify grantees for monitoring. We found…

In accordance with our goal to review and ensure the proper administration of Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) funds provided under the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 (HERA) and/or the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), we conducted a capacity review of the operations of the State of Maine’s (State) Department of Economic and Community Development, Office of Community Development (Department). The…

We conducted a capacity review of the operations of the City of Brockton’s (City) grantee, Building a Better Brockton, Inc. (recipient), which has responsibility for administering the City’s NSP. Our objective was to determine whether the City and/or its recipient had the capacity to effectively and efficiently administer its NSP under the provisions of the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 (HERA) and the American Recovery and…

We performed an audit of the City of Boston’s (City) Department of Neighborhood Development (Department). We selected the City based upon the results of our previous audit of the City’s HOME Investment Partnerships Program (HOME) and the significance of the Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) funds awarded. Our objective was to determine whether the City had the capacity to effectively and efficiently administer its NSP under the provisions…

BOSTON – A former employee of the City of Worcester’s Housing Development Office and Executive Office of Economic Development was convicted by a federal jury yesterday in connection with a $2.3 million fraud scheme relating to the redevelopment of a multi-family property in Worcester. Jacklyn M. Sutcivni, 47, of Dracut, was convicted of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to defraud the United States and false claims. U.S.…