The Digital Accountability and Transparency Act of 2014 (DATA Act) and implementation guidance provided in the Office of Management and Budget Memorandum M-15-12 mandates that Federal agencies must report their financial, budgetary and programmatic information to the USASpending.gov web site by the statutory May 2017 deadline. In our second of two Data Act Readiness Reviews, OIG reviewed the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (…

We audited HUD’s compliance with the fiscal year 2015 travel and purchase card programs based on our required fiscal year 2014 risk assessment, which determined the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) agencywide charge card program to be at medium risk for fraud. Offices of inspector general are required to (1) conduct periodic assessments of the agency charge card programs, (2) perform analyses or audits as necessary, and…

The Office of Hospital Facilities (OHF) provides mortgage insurance for acute care hospitals.  The insurance it provides reduces risk to lenders and lowers borrowing costs for hospitals.  As of May 2016, the unpaid principal balance for its 105 insured mortgages was approximately $7 billion. OHF collects and generates many records to support its mission.  These records include application materials, internal reports, and…

The Digital Accountability and Transparency Act of 2014 (DATA Act), and implementing guidance provided in the Office of Management and Budget Memorandum M-15-12, is a mandate that Federal agencies must follow to report their financial, budgetary and programmatic information to the USASpending.gov web site.  We have reviewed the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) compliance efforts as of July 15, 2016.  To…

We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) oversight of the Government National Mortgage Association’s (Ginnie Mae) contract for financial industry and media marketing services with public relations and communications firm Burson-Marsteller.  We initiated the audit after we became aware of potential issues regarding the amount of funds used for services, which may not have been reasonable or necessary. …

Due to deficiencies found in prior reviews of two Intergovernmental Personnel Act (IPA or Act) assignments, we audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) implementation and oversight of the IPA mobility program. The audit objectives were to determine whether (1) HUD’s use of IPA agreements met the purpose and intent of the IPA mobility program, (2) HUD’s policies and procedures related to IPA agreements were adequate…

Contractors comprise around half of HUD’s workforce. We reviewed progress HUD had made in addressing previously identified background investigation issues. Personnel Security Division (PSD) had reduced the backlog of suitability adjudication cases, but on average it took about four times longer than the Office of Personnel Management standard of 90 days to complete a case—resulting in several hundred contractor employees working at HUD without…

We assessed the HUD Office of the Chief Procurement Officer’s acquisition improvement initiatives. HUD has faced many acquisition challenges over the years and we found HUD had made progress in addressing those challenges. We observed that HUD had not developed a sound, cohesive strategy to address improvement initiatives, offices did not communicate or coordinate effectively, and offices did not agree on the best way to address acquisitions…

We reviewed the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) violation report regarding the misuse of a government purchase card in accordance with the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) implementing guidance and the Government Charge Card Abuse Prevention Act of 2012.   HUD is responsible for the violation report and the conclusions expressed in the report.  Our objective was to evaluate the fairness of the…

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD), Office of Inspector General reviewed HUD’s oversight of contracting for architectural and engineering contracts due to a referral involving a multi-State manufactured home inspection contract awarded by HUD in which the contractor received excessive payments.  Our audit objective was to determine whether HUD properly procured and made reasonable payments for its manufactured…

We conducted an evaluation of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) toll free phone lines.  Our objective was to determine whether HUD’s phone lines were functioning at optimal levels with regard to phone line operations and the level of customer service provided to the public. Our review disclosed that HUD could not determine (1) whether its toll free phone lines were functioning at an optimal level and (2) the…

We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD)’s plans and procedures for data conversion of the HUD Integrated Core Financial System (ICFS). Our audit objective was to review HUD’s readiness to fully implement ICFS and determine whether HUD had properly managed the payments related to data conversion activities. We determined that OCFO incorrectly paid the Integrated Financial Management Improvement Project contractor…

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Office of Inspector General audited the Office of the Chief Human Capital Officer based on concerns about security risks of hard drives in multifunction devices. Our objective was to determine whether HUD had documented and implemented procedures to effectively remove sensitive data from the hard drives of multifunction devices before disposing of them. HUD did not monitor or test the…

We audited Gloucester Township, NJ's administration of its Community Development Block Grant funds that it received under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. We selected the Township for an audit because we received two complaints alleging that it misused stimulus funds and overpaid for services and because of our mandate to audit Recovery Act activities. Our audit objective was to determine whether the Township obligated…

In response to a request for review from the Office of the Department Operations and Coordination, we are auditing the Office of Labor Relations (Labor Relations) wage restitution and deposit process. We found Labor Relations has weak internal controls over their Deposit account. Our objective was to gain an understanding of the deposit process and determine whether the controls used to administer and distribute restitution payments were…

We audited the Office of the Chief Procurement Officer’s (procurement office) procedures for closing out completed and expired Government National Mortgage Association (Ginnie Mae) contracts in compliance with applicable regulations. This audit was part of our audit plan for fiscal year 2010. Our objective was to determine whether the procurement office performed timely closeouts on completed and expired Ginnie Mae contracts. The procurement…

We audited the Office of the Chief Procurement Officer’s (procurement office) administration of interagency agreements (IAAs). This audit was part of our fiscal year 2010 audit plan because of congressional hearings on the use and management of IAAs throughout the Federal Government. Our objective was to determine whether the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) effectively administered its IAAs and the costs to procure these…

We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) process for hiring employees in accordance with Office of Personnel Management (OPM) guidelines. The audit was initiated due to concerns about whether HUD addressed the staffing needs of its Homeownership Centers in a timely manner to address significant increases in single family mortgage workload. Our audit objective was to determine whether HUD effectively hired…

We audited the Office of the Chief Procurement Officer’s (procurement office) procedures for administering completed and expired contracts in compliance with applicable regulations. Our objective was to determine whether the procurement office performed contract closeout procedures on completed and expired contracts in a timely manner. We expanded our objective to determine whether the contract files were complete and properly maintained. We…

We performed an audit of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) property and equipment. We performed this audit as a result of recurring findings relating to HUD’s property and equipment reported in the fiscal years 2004 through 2008 management letters. Our objective was to determine whether HUD properly recorded and tracked the acquisition and disposal of its capitalized and other accountable property and equipment. We…