This report presents the results of Urbach, Kahn, and Werlin LLP's (UKW) audit of the Federal Housing Administration's (FHA) financial statements for the fiscal years ended September 30, 2008 and 2007. In UKW's opinion, the financial statements present fairly, in all material respects, FHA's financial position as of September 30, 2008 and 2007, and its net costs, changes in net position, and combined budgetary resources for…

We completed an audit of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) monitoring of its annual contributions contract with its performance-based contract administrator, the New York State Housing Trust Fund Corporation (contractor). The audit was initiated in accordance with the Office of Inspector General's (OIG) audit plan that includes performing internal audits to evaluate HUD's execution of its fiscal…

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) Office of Inspector General audited HUD's oversight of the Federal Housing Administration (FHA)-insured home equity conversion mortgages (HECM) program. We initiated the audit as part of the activities in our 2008 annual audit plan. Our audit objective was to assess elements of HUD's oversight of the HECM program. This is the first of two audit reports regarding the HECM…

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) Office of Inspector General audited HUD's oversight of the underwriting of Federal Housing Administration (FHA)-insured loans for new construction properties located in the Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) designated special flood hazard areas. We initiated the audit as part of the activities in our 2007 annual audit plan. Our objective was to determine…

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) Office of Inspector General audited HUD's use of residual receipts in lieu of reserve for replacement funds. The objective of the audit was to determine whether HUD appropriately authorized residual receipt withdrawals in lieu of reserve for replacement funds for new regulation multifamily projects. HUD inappropriately authorized the use of more than $3.2 million in residual…

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General, audited HUD's Office of Single Family Housing (Single Family) due to concerns over the expected increase in Federal Housing Administration (FHA)-insured loans generated by newly implemented and proposed FHA programs. The objective of our audit was to determine whether Single Family had implemented an internal control structure in accordance with…

We audited HUD’s appraiser review process as part of our annual plan. The audit was proposed in response to a single-family loan origination audit that raised concerns regarding HUD’s oversight of FHA appraisers. This is the second of two audits covering HUD’s controls over the appraiser review process. The first audit report, 2008-LA-0002, focused on HUD’s oversight of the FHA appraiser roster; whereas this audit report focuses on the…

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) Office of Inspector General reviewed HUD's oversight of projects that opted out of the Section 8 program between January 1, 2004, and December 31, 2007. We reviewed the opt-out process because it involved large amounts of funds potentially not accounted for or remitted to HUD. With a few minor exceptions, HUD complied with applicable requirements while administering the opt-…

We concluded that Single Family could improve the reliability of its process for reporting performance measure results. Single Family has a performance measurement process in place; however, it could make the process more reliable if it routinely evaluated data used for performance measure results and formally documented its structure and process for developing, monitoring, and reporting on performance measures. We recommended that HUD establish…

We audited HUD's controls over the FHA appraiser roster in response to a single-family loan origination audit that had raised concerns about FHA appraisers and appraisals. We reviewed HUD's appraiser roster (roster) to determine whether HUD's controls over the roster were adequate to ensure that only qualified/eligible appraisers were placed on the roster and whether the oversight and maintenance of the roster were sufficient to…

HUD OIG audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) Quality Assurance Division because the results of some previous OIG audits indicated that the Quality Assurance Division might not have consistently followed its requirements. Our objective was to determine whether HUD's Quality Assurance Division consistently required Federal Housing Administration (FHA)-approved lenders to indemnify loans with similar…

WASHINGTON – Guild Mortgage Company has agreed to pay the United States $24.9 million to resolve allegations that it violated the False Claims Act and the common law by knowingly breaching material program requirements when it originated and underwrote mortgages insured by the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Federal Housing Administration (FHA), the Department of Justice announced today.  Guild Mortgage Company is…