While working with the U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Office of Program Enforcement, we noted that the Office of Public Housing did not clearly identify the certifications that public housing agencies were making in the Application for Federal Assistance, SF (standard form)-424.  As a result, we reviewed the guidance concerning the Application, with an objective to determine whether the Office of Public Housing…

In accordance with the statutory requirements of the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act of 2014 (DATA Act) and standards established by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), we audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Office of the Chief Financial Officer’s (OCFO) compliance with the DATA Act for the second quarter of fiscal year 2017. In the DATA Act Compliance Audit of the U.S. Department of Housing…

The Federal Information Security Modernization Act of 2014 (FISMA) directs Inspectors General to conduct an annual evaluation of the agency information security program.  FISMA, Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) establish information technology (IT) security guidance and standards for Federal agencies. We conducted this evaluation to assess…

We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) oversight of the disposition of real properties assisted with Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds.  We conducted the audit as part of our annual audit plan.  Our audit objective was to determine whether HUD had adequate controls over the disposition of real properties assisted with CDBG funds. We found that HUD could improve its oversight of the…

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General audited HUD’s rulemaking process for its single family note sales program.  This is the second in a series of audits on the note sales program.  The previous audit, 2017-KC-0006, reported that HUD did not conduct rulemaking or develop formal procedures for its single-family note sales program.  This audit examines a different aspect of the…

We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) oversight of safe water requirements for Federal Housing Administration (FHA)-insured loans nationwide.  We conducted the audit based on news reports that identified lead contamination in public water systems across the country and also because of an audit in which we found that HUD did not have adequate controls to ensure that FHA-insured properties located in Flint,…

We audited the functionality of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) New Core Financial Management Solution as part of the internal control assessments required for the fiscal year 2017 financial statement audit under the Chief Financial Officer’s Act of 1990.  Our objective was to determine whether effective business processes and interface processing controls were in place for the New Core Financial Management…

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General audited the HUD’s travel and purchase card programs for fiscal year 2016 based on (1) our annual risk assessment of these programs and (2) our requirement under the Charge Card Abuse Prevention Act of 2012 to periodically review government travel and purchase cards.  The most recent risk assessment found that there was a moderate risk of illegal,…

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General audited the HUD’s government purchase card program.  We initiated the review based on our participation in a collaborative effort with other inspectors general under the direction of the Council of Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE) to issue a consolidated report to the Office of Management and Budget on government purchase card use…

We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) oversight of disaster grantee procurement processes.  We conducted the audit after prior audits identified procurement issues.  Our objective was to determine whether HUD provided sufficient guidance and oversight to ensure that disaster grantees followed proficient procurement processes when purchasing products and services. HUD did not provide sufficient…

We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Office of Community Planning and Development’s administration of Economic Development Initiative – Special Project and Neighborhood Initiative congressional grants.  This review was prompted by our Financial Audit Division’s 2012 review, which reported that HUD did not have effective controls to monitor its obligated congressional grant funds.[1]  Our audit…

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of Inspector General audited Ginnie Mae’s oversight of nonbanks due to the growth of nonbank issuers in the mortgage servicing industry.  Our objective was to determine whether Ginnie Mae responded adequately to changes in its issuer base. We found that Ginnie Mae did not adequately respond to changes in its issuer base.  Specifically, it did not implement policies and…

We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) process for forgiving debts and terminating debt collections based on an Office of Inspector General (OIG) preaudit analysis that noted potential violations of debt collection requirements related to disallowed costs in a prior OIG audit recommendation.  Our audit objective was to determine whether HUD complied with applicable requirements when forgiving debts and…

Very low REAC scores are not prevalent across ORCF’s portfolio.  The majority of RCFs that received a REAC score scored at least 80 on their last inspection, and more than three quarters scored at least 60.  Despite the small percentage of RCFs that scored below 31, we noticed an overall decline in REAC inspection scores across ORCF’s portfolio from 2000 to 2016. REAC has adopted an inspection process that applies uniformly to all…

We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) oversight of servicers’ use of loss mitigation programs.  The audit was initiated in response to an Office of Inspector General preaudit analysis of HUD data, which determined that servicers may not always evaluate borrowers with delinquent mortgages for loss mitigation.  Our audit objective was to determine whether HUD had adequate controls to ensure that…

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General audited public housing agency compliance with HUD’s flat rent requirements.  We initiated this audit based on multiple external audits conducted by the HUD Office of Inspector General, which showed that housing authorities were unaware of or did not properly implement the flat rent requirements.  Our objective was to determine whether housing…

We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Community Development Block Grant program’s direct home-ownership assistance activities.  We conducted the audit because it was included in our audit plan based on recent HUD, Office of Inspector General, audits that found issues with home-ownership assistance in the HOME Investment Partnerships program.  Our audit objective was to determine whether HUD had…

HUD OIG assisted U.S. Attorney’s Office, Southern District of New York in a civil investigation related to illegal-undocumented aliens  receiving Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS (HOPWA) assistance.  The HOPWA program at 24 CFR (Code of Federal Regulations) Part 574 is a HUD Office of Community Planning and Development (CPD) grant program that provides formula allocations and competitively awarded grants to eligible States…

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General audited HUD’s rulemaking process for its single family note sales program. We initiated the audit due to the large amount of Federal Housing Administration claims paid on note sales and because our office has never audited the single-family note sales program.  Also, there are public concerns over the creation and administration of the note sales…

We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Office of Community Planning and Development’s (CPD) risk assessment and monitoring of its State Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) recipients.  We started this assignment due to significant findings reported on the State of Oklahoma CDBG-Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) audit (2016-FW-1010) and HUD’s lack of monitoring the State since fiscal year 2011.  Our…