In accordance with our goal to review funds provided under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act), the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's Office of Inspector General conducted a capacity review of the Benton Harbor Housing Commission’s (Commission) operations. We selected the Commission based upon the results of our audit of the Commission’s Public Housing Capital Fund (Capital Fund) program (see…

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's Office of Inspector General reviewed the City of Saginaw’s (City) Community Development Block Grant (Block Grant) program under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Act). The review was part of the activities in our fiscal year 2010 annual audit plan. We selected the City based upon the results of our prior audit of the City’s Block Grant-funded demolition activities. Our…

We audited Federal Housing Administration (FHA)-insured loan processes at two DHI Mortgage Company, LTD (DHI Mortgage), branches in Scottsdale, AZ, to determine whether DHI Mortgage originated, approved, and closed FHA-insured single-family loans in accordance with U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) requirements. We recently conducted an audit of DHI Mortgage’s Tucson and Scottsdale branches and identified significant…

In response to an April 3, 2009, hotline request from the Kaibab Band of Paiute Indians, Pipe Spring, AZ (Kaibab), the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Office of Inspector General reviewed HUD’s evaluation of Kaibab’s application for an Indian Community Development Block Grant (Indian Block Grant) under HUD’s 2008 notice of funding availability. The review objective was to evaluate the merits of the complainant’s…

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Office of Inspector General reviewed Wayne County’s (County) Neighborhood Stabilization Program (Program). The review was part of the activities in our fiscal year 2009 annual audit plan. We selected the County based upon a request from HUD’s Detroit Office of Community Planning and Development. Our objective was to determine whether the County had the capacity to effectively and…

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Office of Inspector General audited the Grand Rapids Housing Commission’s (Commission) Section 8 Project-Based Voucher program (program). The audit was part of the activities in our fiscal year 2009 annual audit plan. We selected the Commission’s program based upon our internal audit survey of HUD’s oversight of the program and our analysis of risk factors relating to the housing…

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Office of Inspector General audited the City of Saginaw’s (City) Community Development Block Grant (Block Grant) program-funded demolition activities. The audit was part of the activities in our fiscal year 2009 annual audit plan. We selected the City based upon a request from HUD’s Detroit Office of Community Planning and Development. Our audit objective was to determine whether the…

We conducted a capacity review of the Navajo Housing Authority’s (Authority) operations. The objective of the review was to evaluate the Authority’s capacity to administer its American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (Recovery Act) funds and identify related potential internal control weaknesses that could impact its ability to properly administer the funds. We did not find evidence indicating that the Authority lacked the basic capacity to…

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Office of Inspector General audited the Michigan State Housing Development Authority’s (Authority) Section 8 Project-Based Voucher program (program). The audit was part of the activities in our fiscal year 2009 annual audit plan. We selected the Authority’s program based upon our internal audit survey of HUD’s oversight of the program and our analysis of risk factors relating to the…

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Office of Inspector General audited the City of Flint’s (City) HOME Investment Partnerships Program (Program). The audit was part of the activities in our fiscal year 2009 annual audit plan. We selected the City based upon our analysis of risk factors relating to Program grantees in Region V’s jurisdiction and a citizen complaint to our office. Our audit objectives were to determine…

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) Office of Inspector General performed an audit of Custom Closing Services, Incorporated (Custom), a contractor closing sales of HUD real estate-owned properties in the state of Michigan. The audit was conducted based on a complaint to our hotline alleging that Custom caused significant delays in the closing of HUD homes in Michigan. Our audit objective was to determine whether…

We performed a capital fund administrative capacity review of the Housing Authority of the City of Eloy (Authority) because, despite the Authority’s persistent management problems, HUD awarded the Authority a Public Housing Capital Fund grant of $113,672 under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act). Our objective was to determine whether the Authority had sufficient capacity to administer its Recovery Act Public…

We audited Park Lee Apartments to determine whether it complied with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) regulatory agreement and other federal requirements. We found that Park Lee Apartments did not use its project funds in compliance with HUD and other federal requirements. Specifically, the owner and/or management agents violated the regulatory agreement with HUD by paying $512,562 in questioned costs from the…

We audited FHA-insured loan processes at two DHI Mortgage Company, LTD (DHI Mortgage) branches in Tucson and Scottsdale, Arizona, to determine whether DHI Mortgage originated, approved, and closed FHA-insured single-family loans in accordance with HUD requirements. We chose DHI Mortgage because the Scottsdale, Arizona, branch had a default rate that was double the default rate for FHA-insured loans for the state of Arizona, and then expanded…

We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Office of Public Housing field office in Phoenix, Arizona (Public Housing). The objective of the audit was to determine whether Public Housing’s procedures for monitoring the Nogales Housing Authority (Authority) were effective. The audit was started because Public Housing performed several monitoring reviews at the Authority; however, there were indications that some of…

We performed a corrective action verification of HUD's actions in implementing recommendation 1F from our audit of the Housing Authority of Maricopa County's Mixed Finance Development Activities (Rose Terrace and Maricopa Revitalization), Audit Report 2005-LA-1002, issued March 14, 2005. The purpose of the corrective action verification was to determine whether HUD officials appropriately closed audit recommendation 1F in accordance…

We audited Campaige Place at Jackson (Campaige Place) to determine whether it used its project funds in compliance with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) regulatory agreement and other federal requirements. Campaige Place did not use its project funds in compliance with HUD’s and other federal requirements. Specifically, we determined that: •Owner advances of $73,750 were repaid when the project had no surplus cash…

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) Office of Inspector General audited the Lansing Housing Commission's (Commission) nonprofit development activities. The review of public housing authorities' development activities is set forth in our fiscal year 2007 annual audit plan. We selected the Commission because it was identified as having high-risk indicators of nonprofit development activity. Our objective was…

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) Office of Inspector General audited the Highland Park Housing Commission's (Commission) Public Housing program (program). The audit was part of the activities in our annual audit plan. We selected the Commission based upon its fiscal year 2005 independent auditor's report that identified it as having a high-risk program. Our objectives were to determine whether the…

We audited the mortgage origination and business practices of the First Magnus Financial Corporation’s (First Magnus) corporate office in Tucson, Arizona. The objective of the audit was to determine whether First Magnus violated U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) requirements by paying builders and real estate companies marketing fees and non-competition fees in exchange for the referral of Federal Housing Administration (…