The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General audited HUD to determine whether it paid servicers’ claims for properties that did not foreclose or convey on time.  We initiated this audit due to concerns that HUD overpaid servicers’ claims for FHA insurance benefits. HUD paid claims for an estimated 239,000 properties that servicers did not foreclose upon or convey on time.  HUD paid an…

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 Inspector General (OIG) assisted the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey in the investigation of Finance of America Mortgage LLC.  The investigation began due to a qui tam filing in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey.  The relator alleged that Finance of America, through its acquisition of Gateway Funding Diversified Mortgage Services LLP, knowingly participated in a mortgage fraud…

We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) controls over its certifications of State disaster recovery grantee procurement processes.  We initiated the audit after prior audits identified issues with the procurement certification completed for the State of New Jersey.  Our objective was to determine whether HUD certifications of State disaster grantee procurement processes were accurate and supported. HUD…

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 U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General (OIG), assisted the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Southern District of New York and Northern District of California, in conducting an investigation of Wells Fargo Bank, N.A.’s origination and underwriting of mortgage loans insured by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA). Based in part on our review, the United States alleged…

We have completed preliminary research on the Office of Community Planning and Development’s (CPD) methods to allocate Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) funds appropriated under the Disaster Relief Appropriations Act of 2013 (PL 113-2).  Our objectives were to review the methodology for (1) the seven formula-based allocations and (2) the two competition-based allocations of CDBG-DR funds. We conducted this…

The U.S. Department of Housing Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General audited the Government National Mortgage Association’s (Ginnie Mae) process for identifying and removing uninsured single-family Federal Housing Administration loans from mortgage-backed securities (MBS) pools.  Our audit objective was to determine whether loans remained in Ginnie Mae MBS pools for 1 year or longer without the required mortgage insurance.…

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General (OIG), reviewed preforeclosure sales under the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) program in the St. Louis, MO, area.  We found that the realtor for the preforeclosure sale entered into a consulting agreement with the purchaser of the property.  The agreement required that when the purchaser later sold the property, he would pay half of the net…

We audited the functionality of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) New Core Interface Solution (NCIS) for phase 1, release 3, as part of the internal control assessments required for the fiscal year 2016 financial statement audit under the Chief Financial Officer’s Act of 1990.  Our objective was to determine whether adequate internal controls were in place for the phase 1, release 3, functionality of NCIS and the…

We audited the calculation process for Public Housing Operating Fund subsidies awarded to public housing agencies (PHA).  We initiated this review based on an internal audit suggestion, which was included in our annual audit plan.  The objective of the audit was to determine whether the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) verified Operating Fund calculations to ensure that PHAs received the correct amounts and…

At the request of the HUD Office of Multifamily Housing Programs, OIG assessed Multifamily’s efforts to determine the impact its affordable housing programs had on preserving affordable housing via tenant outreach and advocacy activities to revitalize communities. Existing performance measures did not provide useful program evaluation information and did not meet Multifamily’s needs. OIG recommended program design and evaluation solutions that…

As part of a Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE) cross-cutting initiative involving eight Offices of Inspector General (OIG), we reviewed the Disaster Relief Appropriations Act, 2013, and eight agencies that received $46.5 billion for expenses related to the consequences of Hurricane Sandy and other disasters.  Our review objective was to compile and report on the eight Federal agencies’ total funding,…

We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) oversight of its Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) program and found that 33 borrowers had more than 1 loan under the program.  Having multiple loans violated program requirements because HUD requires borrowers to reside in the mortgaged residence as their principal residence and borrowers may not have more than one principal residence at a time.  We referred…

We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) oversight of its Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) program and found that contrary to program residency requirements, 37 borrowers did not live in the property associated with the loan and were renting the property to participants in HUD’s Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher program.   Renting the properties to Section 8 program participants violated program…

We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) oversight of its Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) program and found that 33 borrowers had more than 1 loan under the program.  Having multiple loans violated program requirements because HUD requires borrowers to reside in the mortgaged residence as their principal residence and borrowers may not have more than one principal residence at a time.  We referred…

We reviewed the general and application controls over the Federal Housing Administration’s (FHA) Single Family Insurance System (SFIS) and Single Family Insurance Claims Subsystem (Claims) 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 general and application controls over SFIS and Claims for compliance with…

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…

The U.S. Department of Housing Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General audited the HUD to determine whether it collected partial claims upon termination of their related Federal Housing Administration (FHA)-insured mortgages.  We initiated this audit because of our concern that FHA partial claims could go uncollected. HUD did not collect an estimated 1,361 partial claims that became due in fiscal year 2015.  As a result,…

We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) oversight of Federal Housing Administration (FHA)-insured loans in Flint, MI.  We conducted the audit based on recent news reports that identified high levels of lead contamination and because HUD had insured loans on properties in Flint that closed after the City of Flint began using the Flint River as its water source in April 2014, including 144 loans with unpaid…