We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) administration of its purchase card program in accordance with the Charge Card Abuse Prevention Act of 2012.  Our 2013 risk assessment review identified HUD’s purchase card program at medium to high risk for fraud or misuse, and our review of HUD’s Semiannual Purchase Card Violation Report (audit memorandum number 2014-FO-0801) raised concerns regarding…

We performed the 19th review of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation’s (LMDC) administration of the $2.783 billion in Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Disaster Recovery Assistance funds awarded to the State of New York in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City.  The objective of the audit was to determine whether LMDC disbursed CDBG Disaster Recovery Assistance…

We reviewed the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Office of Affordable Housing Programs’ oversight of leases in HOME Investment Partnerships Program-funded rental housing projects.  The review was part of the activities in our fiscal year 2015 annual audit plan.  Our objective was to determine whether HUD’s Office had adequate oversight of participating jurisdictions to ensure that leases between rental projects…

The Inspector General Act of 1978 requires the Inspector General to prepare semiannual reports summarizing the activities of the Office of Inspector General for the preceding six-month periods. The semiannual reports are intended to keep the Secretary and the Congress fully informed of significant findings, progress the Agency has made and recommendations for improvement.

We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) implementation and oversight of compliance with environmental requirements as part of the HUD Office of Inspector General’s annual audit plan to contribute to improving HUD’s execution of and accountability for its fiscal responsibilities.  Our objective was to determine whether HUD, specifically its Offices of Housing; Public Housing, and Native American Programs…

We conducted further analysis of our reported findings in fiscal years 2013 and 2014 that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) formula grant accounting did not comply with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), resulting in misstatements on the financial statements, and that HUD did not comply with the HOME Investment Partnership Act (also known as the HOME Statute).  The additional analysis was performed…

We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) New Core Project as part of the internal control assessments required for the fiscal year 2015 financial statement audit under the Chief Financial Officer’s Act of 1990.  Our objective was to assess the status of the project and to determine whether the New Core Project team complied with Federal regulations and departmental project management processes.  This…

We completed a review of the City of New York, Office of Management and Budget’s administration of the Business Loan and Grant Program funded with Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) funds provided by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to assist in the disaster recovery and rebuilding efforts resulting from Hurricane Sandy.  The objectives of the audit were to determine whether the City (1…

We completed a review of First Niagara Bank’s servicing of Federal Housing Administration (FHA)-insured mortgages and its implementation of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Loss Mitigation program.  We selected First Niagara Bank based on an Office of Inspector General risk assessment of single-family lenders.  The objective of the audit was to determine whether First Niagara Bank properly serviced FHA-…

We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) fiscal year 2014 compliance with the Improper Payments Elimination and Recovery Act of 2010 (IPERA) in accordance with the requirements of IPERA.  Our audit objectives were to (1) determine HUD’s compliance with IPERA reporting and improper payments reduction requirements; (2) determine whether HUD’s reporting of improper payments data, including the agency’s…

The Office of Evaluation performed preliminary research of the HUD Office of the Chief Information Officer’s (OCIO) management of the agency’s reporting of financial and project information on the Federal IT Dashboard (Dashboard).  The objective of the evaluation was to determine if OCIO processes ensured accurate IT investment information was reported on the Dashboard.  We found that project managers did not consistently follow…

We audited the City of New York, Office of Management and Budget’s administration of the Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery Assistance (CDBG-DR) funds awarded to the City as a result of damages caused by Hurricane Sandy.  This review was related to the disbursement of approximately $4 million in CDBG-DR funds pertaining to administration costs.   The objectives of the audit were to determine whether the City (1)…

We audited HUD Federal Housing Administration’s (FHA) Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) partial claim option.  We audited the FHA-HAMP partial claim option because we had not reviewed the program since 2011 and the requirements had changed.  Our audit objective was to determine whether HUD had adequate controls over FHA-HAMP partial claim payments. HUD’s claim payment controls for the FHA-HAMP partial claim option were not…

We reviewed the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Community Planning and Development’s (CPD) Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP).  We initiated the audit under the HUD Office of Inspector General’s (OIG) annual audit plan.  Our objective was to provide an overall assessment of NSP, including assessing the sufficiency of HUD’s controls and determining whether HUD had improved its controls as a…

HUD OIG assisted in an investigation into alleged violations of Federal Housing Administration (FHA) regulations applicable to the direct endorsement program by Golden First Mortgage Corporation and its owner.  Golden First is a former FHA-approved mortgage lender, with its principal place of business located in Great Neck, NY.  Golden First participated in the direct endorsement program from 1989 until 2010.  As a direct…

In accordance with the Chief Financial Officers Act of 1990, as amended, we are required to annually audit the consolidated financial statements of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the stand alone financial statements of Federal Housing Administration (FHA) and the Government National Mortgage Administration (Ginnie Mae). Our objective was to express an opinion on the fairness of the financial statements in…

We completed a review of the Buffalo Municipal Housing Authority’s legal and police service expenses in response to a hotline complaint.  The complainant alleged that Authority officials paid outside legal counsel for work that should have been done by its own legal staff and paid for police services below the baseline level of services that should have been provided under a cooperation agreement with the City of Buffalo. The allegation in…

We reviewed information system controls over the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) computing environment.  This review was conducted as part of the Office of Inspector General’s audit of HUD’s financial statements for fiscal year 2014 under the Chief Financial Officer’s Act of 1990. The OIG has determined that the contents of this report would not be appropriate for public disclosure and has therefore limited its…

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General audited HUD’s monitoring of the community service and self-sufficiency requirement (CSSR)  to determine the extent to which HUD subsidized public housing units occupied by noncompliant tenants and housing for tenants whose CSSR status was misreported. We found that HUD subsidized housing for 106,000 units occupied by noncompliant tenants, out of nearly…

We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) oversight of public housing agencies’ lobbying activities based on information we obtained while resolving recommendations from an audit of the Philadelphia Housing Authority which showed that the Authority engaged in lobbying activities that it failed to disclose.  Our audit objective was to determine whether HUD oversight was adequate to ensure that public housing…