We audited certain portions of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) multifamily housing and healthcare insured mortgage programs as part of our fiscal year 2012 annual audit plan.  The objective of the review was to determine the adequacy of the Office of Housing’s procedures and controls for selecting, conducting, and following up on postendorsement underwriting reviews of insured multifamily and healthcare loans...

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of Inspector General selected HUD’s Federal Housing Administration, Single Family Claims Branch, for audit based on an internal audit suggestion expressing concern that HUD may not have policies, procedures, or systems to identify and address funds held by lenders and submitted as part of a claim.  Our audit objective was to determine whether FHA had adequately reduced mortgage...

We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) servicing of multifamily projects with HUD-held mortgages because it was part of the Office of Inspector General’s (OIG) annual audit plan. We reviewed 33 multifamily projects with HUD-held mortgages that totaled $307.9 million. Our objective was to determine whether HUD (1) obtained, documented, and reviewed the monthly accounting reports and (2) collected monthly net...

We reviewed the City of San Bernardino’s Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) and CDBG-Recovery Act (CDBG-R) programs because the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Los Angeles Office of Community Planning and Development expressed concerns about the City’s administration of its CDBG program. Our objective was to determine whether the City administered its CDBG and CDBG-R program funds in accordance with applicable HUD...

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General conducted a limited scope internal review of Office of Healthy Homes and Lead Hazard Control (Healthy Homes) to determine whether Healthy Homes allowed excessive administrative costs to be charged to the Lead-Based Paint Hazard Control grant program. This review was the result of the audit of the Washington State Lead Hazard Control grant (2012-SE-1005,...

We audited the Office of Labor Relations deposit account based on a request from the Acting Director of the Office Labor Relations. The Acting Director was concerned with internal controls over the deposit account. The objective of our review was to determine whether (1) controls used to administer and distribute restitution payments were adequate and (2) the correct workers received the restitution payments. Labor Relations violated the...

We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) State Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Hurricane Disaster Recovery program for hurricanes that hit the Gulf Coast States from August 2005 through September 2008. Our audit objective was to assess the program overall. Specifically, we wanted to (1) determine what had been accomplished using the funding and the funds remaining to be spent; (2) compare actual versus...

We conducted an audit of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) fiscal year 2012 compliance with the Improper Payments Information Act of 2002 as amended by the Improper Payments Elimination and Recovery Act of 2010 (IPERA).  The statute was enacted to prevent the loss of billions in taxpayer dollars due to improper payments by requiring the agency to identify and report on its programs and activities that are...

We audited Bay Vista Methodist Heights, San Diego, CA, to determine the full extent of the misuse of its trust funds. We selected Bay Vista for review based on a referral from the Office of Multifamily Housing, stating that Bay Vista violated its trust fund agreement with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) because the former chief financial officer transferred more than $3 million in restricted funds into Bay Vista’s...

We completed a corrective action verification of a recommendation made to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Office of Public and Indian Housing (PIH) pertaining to our review of the City of Hawthorne, CA’s Section 8 program, Audit Report 2011-LA-1008, which was issued March 28, 2011. The purpose of the corrective action verification was to determine whether HUD officials appropriately closed audit recommendation 1A....

We conducted an evaluation of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) toll free phone lines.  Our objective was to determine whether HUD’s phone lines were functioning at optimal levels with regard to phone line operations and the level of customer service provided to the public. Our review disclosed that HUD could not determine (1) whether its toll free phone lines were functioning at an optimal level and (2) the...

We reviewed the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Home Investment Partnerships Program as part of an Office of Inspector General (OIG) plan to improve HUD’s execution and accountability of fiscal responsibility. Our objective was to determine whether HUD’s proposed regulation changes and controls would mitigate the systemic deficiencies identified in prior OIG audit reports. We found that if properly implemented, HUD’s...

We conducted a limited review of Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loans underwritten by Standard Pacific Mortgage, Inc. We selected the lender based on the results of an auditability survey, which determined that Standard Pacific Mortgage allowed prohibited restrictive covenants to be filed against FHA-insured properties. The objective of our review was to determine the extent to which Standard Pacific Mortgage failed to prevent the...

We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) oversight of Private Enforcement Initiative grants awarded under its Fair Housing Initiatives program as part of our annual audit plan. Our objective was to determine whether HUD performed monitoring to ensure that enforcement grant funds were spent in compliance with grant terms and program requirements. HUD monitoring generally covered procedures required to ensure that...

We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) oversight of the Assisted Living Conversion Program. We initiated the audit as part of the activities in our fiscal year 2012 annual audit plan, which included contributing to the improvement of HUD’s execution of and accountability for fiscal responsibilities. Our audit objective was to determine whether HUD had adequate oversight of its Assisted Living Conversion Program...

We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) oversight of its Home Equity Conversion Mortgage Program based on our annual audit plan and our strategic goal to improve the integrity of HUD’s single-family insurance programs. This is the second of two reports that we issued on HUD’s oversight of the Program. Our objective was to determine whether HUD controls prevented borrowers from renting their properties to Section...

We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) plans and procedures for data conversion and system interfaces for the implementation of the HUD Integrated Core Financial System (ICFS). We conducted this audit as a component of the testing of general and technical controls for information systems in connection with the annual audit of HUD’s consolidated financial statements. HUD’s effort to modernize its financial...

We audited HUD's Region 3 Offices of Multifamily Housing to determine whether HUD ensured that rents and excess income for Section 236 properties were properly identified and remitted to HUD. We performed this audit based on our audit plan and problems identified during an external audit of a Section 236 property located in Washington, DC. HUD's Region 3 Offices of Multifamily Housing generally ensured that Section 236 properties...

We reviewed the City of Inglewood’s HOME Investment Partnerships Program. We initiated the review because of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Los Angeles Office of Community Planning and Development’s expressed concerns about the City’s administration of its program funds. Our objective was to determine whether the City complied with HOME rules and requirements for obligations, commitments, expenditures, program...

We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD)’s plans and procedures for data conversion of the HUD Integrated Core Financial System (ICFS). Our audit objective was to review HUD’s readiness to fully implement ICFS and determine whether HUD had properly managed the payments related to data conversion activities. We determined that OCFO incorrectly paid the Integrated Financial Management Improvement Project contractor...