Contractors comprise around half of HUD’s workforce. We reviewed progress HUD had made in addressing previously identified background investigation issues. Personnel Security Division (PSD) had reduced the backlog of suitability adjudication cases, but on average it took about four times longer than the Office of Personnel Management standard of 90 days to complete a case—resulting in several hundred contractor employees working at HUD without…

We completed a review of the State of New York Governor’s Office of Storm Recovery’s administration of the Small Business Grants and Loans program funded with Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) funds provided by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).  The objectives of the audit were to determine whether State officials (1) approved and disbursed CDBG-DR funds for the Small Business Grants…

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Office of Inspector General (OIG) performed a review of The Retreat at Church Ranch bank records based on our audit conducted of the project.  Our review disclosed that the owner allegedly made payments for personal expenses from the project’s bank account.  We requested that HUD pursue proceedings against the owner. On July 22, 2015, HUD notified the owner of his proposed…

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development – Office of Inspector General audited HUD’s Federal Housing Administrations rules and requirements pertaining to nonprofits purchasing real estate-owned (REO) homes during the exclusive listing period.  We initiated this review based on information found during an audit of a nonprofit that purchased homes during the exclusive listing period in memorandum 2015-DE-1801.  Our objective…

We audited the City of Baton Rouge and Parish of East Baton Rouge’s (City) Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program as part of the Office of Inspector General’s annual audit plan to review community planning and development funds.  The audit objective was to determine whether the City properly administered and adequately documented its CDBG program activities in accordance with U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD…

We audited the Puerto Rico Department of Housing’s Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher program’s housing quality standards as part of the activities in our fiscal year 2014 audit plan.  We selected the Department because it had a large program receiving more than $54 million in 2014.  Our main audit objective was to determine whether the Department’s inspection process adequately ensured that its units complied with the U.S. Department…

We audited the City of New York, Office of Management and Budget’s administration of its Temporary Disaster Assistance Program (TDAP) 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 disaster recovery funds were authorized by Congress under the…

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General, audited the Poplar Bluff Housing Authority because information obtained from HUD’s Public and Indian Housing Information Center indicated that the Authority appeared to have flat rents set at a rate below 80 percent of the fair market rent in that area.  Our objective was to determine whether the Authority complied with HUD’s flat rent requirements…

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General audited Homewood Terrace Mutual Homes’ Section 8 housing assistance payments program due to concerns over poor financial reporting and potentially inappropriate involvement by one of its board members.  Our objective was to determine whether Homewood Terrace conducted timely reexaminations, correctly calculated and requested assistance payments, and…

We audited the Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) assistance grant provided to the State of Rhode Island by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to assist in disaster recovery and rebuilding efforts resulting from damages caused by Hurricane Sandy.  The audit objective was to determine whether State officials obligated and disbursed the grant funds in a timely manner in accordance with HUD…

We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) oversight of public housing agencies’ declarations of trust.  The audit was part of the activities in our fiscal year 2015 annual audit plan.  Our audit objective was to determine whether HUD had adequate oversight of public housing agencies’ compliance with its declaration of trust requirements. HUD did not always ensure that public housing agencies maintained…

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General, audited the State of Missouri’s Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Disaster Recovery program because it was initially awarded more than $103 million in two CDBG Disaster Recovery grants for storms and flooding that occurred in 2008 and we had not previously audited the State’s activities regarding these funds.  Our audit objective was to…

We performed the 20th review of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation’s (LMDC) administration of the $2.783 billion in Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Disaster Recovery 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 funds in accordance…

We audited the County of Riverside’s Community Development Block Grant program due to the delayed expenditure of funds for fiscal year 2014 and previous audit findings regarding policies and procedures.  The Office of Inspector General had conducted a review of the County and identified issues with its program-specific policies and procedures, which were addressed (audit report number 2010-LA-1004).  Our objective was to determine…

We audited the Huntsville Housing Authority’s Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher program.  We initiated the audit under the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General’s (OIG) annual audit plan.  We selected the Authority as part of a strategic plan with the Assistant United States Attorney in Northern Alabama to evaluate housing authorities in her jurisdiction.  Our audit objective was to…

Historically, HUD program managers have not wanted to enforce program requirements. That reluctance increases the risk that program funds will not provide maximum benefits to recipients and allows serious noncompliances to go unchecked. When it was created, the Departmental Enforcement Center had independent enforcement authority, but it lost that authority when it moved from the Deputy Secretary’s office to the Office of General Counsel (OGC…

We are conducting an audit of the City of Jersey City’s Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program based upon an Office of Inspector General (OIG) hotline complaint containing several allegations, one of which was that the City’s Division of Community Development’s lead risk assessor was not qualified or producing monitoring reports for rehabilitation work funded under the City’s Homeowner Rehabilitation Program.  The objective of…

We audited the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony based on a complaint alleging the misuse of U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) funds due to improper procurement activities.  The objective of the audit was to determine the validity of the complaint and whether the Colony used its Indian Housing Block Grant and Indian Community Development Block Grant funds in accordance with HUD requirements. The complaint allegations had merit…

We audited the City of Rochester’s Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program to address our audit plan priority to improve financial management controls over CDBG grants.  We selected this grantee based on a risk analysis of grantees administered by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Buffalo field office, which considered funds received and the risk score assigned by HUD.  The City received more than $…

We assessed the HUD Office of the Chief Procurement Officer’s acquisition improvement initiatives. HUD has faced many acquisition challenges over the years and we found HUD had made progress in addressing those challenges. We observed that HUD had not developed a sound, cohesive strategy to address improvement initiatives, offices did not communicate or coordinate effectively, and offices did not agree on the best way to address acquisitions…