We recommend that the Director of HUD’s New Orleans Office of Community Planning and Development require the Parish to support or repay its program from non-Federal funds $1,020,121 for payments made (1) for work that the contractor(s) did not perform and excessive material costs; (2) that lacked adequate supporting documentation for change orders, independent cost estimates, and invoice documentation; or (3) for the 10 HOME-funded…

We recommend that the Director of HUD’s New Orleans Office of Community Planning and Development require the Parish to establish and implement desk and onsite monitoring policies and procedures to ensure that documentation is maintained to support that (1) adequate supporting documentation for payments is filed, tracked, and maintained; (2) the necessity for all change orders is verified and reasonableness of the costs is assessed; (3) cost…

Assess whether prior-year financial statements need to be restated to correct the impact of the presentation error in the allocation of reestimates identified in fiscal year 2017.

Implement a repeatable and sustainable process to prepare timely and accurate quarterly financial statement notes, including third and fourth quarter notes within the OMB required timeframe.

Establish policies and procedures for recording the budget authority apportioned to HUD during a continuing resolution, including both the proprietary and budgetary transactions.

Ensure that the budget execution policies and procedures are properly delegated, assigned, and communicated to the personnel fulfilling these responsibilities.

Ensure that the budget execution procedures executed internally by OCFO Budget are consistent with those established by ARC.

Develop and implement policies and procedures to ensure that intragovernmental differences identified with U.S. Treasury’s General Fund are resolved on a timely basis with corrective action plans.

Develop standard operating procedures for implementing accounting changes, including steps to assess the appropriate impact on each treasury account symbol.

Review all of Ginnie Mae’s TAS’s to determine the appropriate accounting treatment for anticipated collections, make the appropriate adjustments as determined necessary, apply this process going forward, and make restatements if necessary. The CFO should ensure that the accounting treatment follows the USSGL guidance through all phases of the anticipated collection (before collection and after collection).

Work with PIH to develop and implement a consistent and reasonable methodology for determining the PIH prepayment that (1) allows for timely recording of financial events, (2) complies with GAAP, and (3) provides an adequate audit trail until the cash management process is automated.

Develop and implement procedures to ensure that the methodology is reevaluated by PIH and OCFO annually and any changes do not compromise (1) the audit trial, (2) compliance with GAAP, or (3) the accuracy of the balance.

Reopen recommendation 2016-FO-0003-002-A, “Evaluate the IHBG investment process and implement a proper accounting treatment in accordance with Federal GAAP.”

Reopen recommendation 2016-FO-0003-002-B, “Work with the Office of Native American Programs to calculate the amounts advanced to grantees and restate HUD’s financial statements to recognize the prepayments on the financial statements.”

Reopen recommendation 2016-FO-0003-002-C, “Develop standard operating procedures for routinely obtaining information on grantee investment activity and accurately reporting amounts in HUD’s general ledger and financial statements.”

Work with OCFO to develop a consistent and reasonable methodology for determining the PIH prepayment, which (1) allows for timely recording of financial events, (2) complies with GAAP, and (3) provides an adequate audit trail until the cash management process is automated.

Reopen recommendation 2016-FO-0003-002-D, “Develop a tracking function for the payments advanced to IHBG recipients to facilitate financial reporting and monitoring compliance with grant time restrictions.”

Remove the waiver concerning the completion and submission of the SF-425 by CPD’s grantees and implement a process to collect SF-425 information electronically. This process should begin with initial (and ongoing) grant documentation containing specific requirements stating that the Federal Financial Report should be properly completed and required to be submitted quarterly, semiannually, or annually (depending on the grant type and…

During the implementation process of the waiver removal and collection of SF-425 data, ensure that CPD verifies the accuracy of the accrual data collected from the grantees and provided to its contractor conducting the validation methodology and retain documentation showing that it has independently verified that the contractors resulting accrual estimation information is accurate.

Develop and implement a formal process to (1) track and age the suspense accounts by individual transaction detail, (2) perform regular monitoring of all suspense (clearing) accounts, and (3) promptly research transactions entered into the suspense accounts to ensure that they are posted to the appropriate TAS within 60 days.