We audited the Springfield Housing Authority’s Public Housing Operating Fund and Capital Fund programs because the Authority ranked fifth highest on our risk assessment of Massachusetts public housing agencies and is the third largest in the State. In addition, we had not audited the Authority in more than 10 years. The objective of the audit was to determine whether the Authority complied with procurement and contract administration…

We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) oversight of public housing agencies’ compliance with the Lead Safe Housing Rule.  The audit is part of the activities in our fiscal year 2019 audit plan.  The audit objective was to determine whether HUD had adequate oversight of public housing agencies’ compliance with the Lead Safe Housing Rule.HUD did not have adequate oversight of public housing agencies’…

The Office of Inspector General is initiating an evaluation of the Office of Public and Indian Housing (PIH) and the Office of Multifamily Housing Program (Multifamily)’s policies for radon. We will determine the extent to which PIH and Multifamily’s radon policies protect residents from the hazardous health effects of exposure to indoor radon. I have included our evaluation design, which gives more information about our planned work.

In 2016, we began a series of audits in accordance with our goal to review the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) multifamily housing programs.  We issued five reports detailing violations found at Project-Based Rental Assistance (PBRA) properties in HUD’s Southwest Region.  This assignment is a rollup of those five reports.  In addition, we reviewed HUD’s controls to ensure that its housing assistance…

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. Our objectives were to express an opinion on the fair presentation of HUD’s consolidated financial statements and report on HUD’s internal controls over financial reporting and compliance with select provisions of applicable laws,…

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General audited HUD’s compliance with the purchase card program requirements for fiscal years 2017 and 2018 based on our risk assessment. Our audit objective was to determine whether HUD maintained accurate records of cardholders and transactions; HUD employees took purchase card training when required; and HUD purchase cards were used for illegal, improper, or…

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General audited HUD’s compliance with the travel card program requirements for fiscal year 2018 based on our risk assessment.Our audit objective was to determine whether HUD travel cards were used for potentially illegal, improper, or erroneous purchases and whether travel cards were used when required. We found that out of a sample of transactions that we…

This topic brief summarized the current status of all information technology (IT) and privacy program recommendations issued to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) by the Office of Inspector General’s Office of Evaluation, Information Technology Evaluations Division (iTED) from Fiscal Year (FY) 2014 through 2019.  The report breaks down numbers of recommendations by functional areas and analyzes the progress made…

This management alert identified that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is failing to meet basic records management and privacy requirements for over 1 billion records containing PII.  Specifically, HUD is unable to identify, categorize, and adequately secure all of its electronic and paper records that contain personally identifiable information (PII).  These issues were identified during the fiscal year (FY)…

This report presents the results of our audit of FHA’s principal financial statements and notes for the fiscal years ending September 30, 2019 and 2018, including our report on FHA’s internal control and test of compliance with selected provisions of laws, regulations, contracts, and grant agreements. In our opinion, FHA’s fiscal years 2019 and 2018 financial statements were presented fairly, in all material respects, in accordance with the U.S…

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General audited Federal Housing Administration (FHA)-insured loans from fiscal year 2018.  Our audit objective was to determine whether FHA provided insurance on loans that were made to ineligible, delinquent Federal tax debtors. We found that FHA insured at least 56,376 loans worth $13 billion, which were not eligible for insurance because they were made to…

In February 2018, the Office of Inspector General (OIG) for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) received multiple complaints alleging that HUD’s Secretary, Dr. Benjamin S. Carson, Sr., may have violated federal appropriations law by causing the Department to purchase a new set of dining room furniture for his secretarial suite at a cost in excess of $31,000. Due to Secretary Carson’s position as a presidentially-appointed…

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 completed a corrective action verification (CAV) of recommendations 1A and 1C from prior OIG audit report 2015-LA-0001 (issued April 20, 2015).  The CAV was initiated based on preliminary analysis, which identified potential ineligible partial claims.  The prior audit determined that the Federal Housing Administration’s (FHA) claim payment system failed to identify two types of ineligible partial claims.  As part of its…

Topic briefs are a tool we use to keep officials within the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) informed of challenges so that its leadership can be better prepared to address them.  This topic brief describes our observations of the time it takes the Office of Community Planning and Development (CPD) to complete risk-based scoring.  HUD implemented its risk analysis process to help CPD field offices identify and…

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General audited HUD to ensure that public housing agencies (PHA) have access to information in the Federal Do Not Pay system. We performed this audit because the Housing Opportunity Through Modernization Act of 2016 requires HUD to ensure that PHAs have access to information contained in the Bureau of Fiscal Services’ Do Not Pay system established by the Improper…

We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) fiscal year 2018 compliance with the Improper Payments Elimination and Recovery Act of 2010 (IPERA). Our audit objective was to determine whether HUD complied with IPERA reporting and improper payment reduction requirements according to guidance from Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circular A-123, appendix C. Fiscal year 2018 marked the sixth consecutive year in which…