Recover from the borrowers and reimburse $1,080,242 to the applicable loan guarantee account from non-Federal funds for ineligible disbursements that were not related to the approved projects and used to finance local government operations.

Obtain and submit supporting documentation showing the eligibility and propriety of $367,840 in disbursements or reimburse the loan guarantee account from non-Federal funds.

Ensure that the borrowers either transfer the unexpended Section 108 loan proceeds to the repayment account or submit a request for extension to HUD.

Ensure that the borrowers provide HUD the additional security requirements according to the loan agreement.

Ensure that borrowers develop and implement a financial management system in accordance with HUD requirements to ensure that program funds can be traced to a level that ensures that such funds have not been used in violation of the restrictions and prohibitions of applicable statutes.

Ensure that all Section 108 loan proceeds deposited at commercial banks are properly collateralized with Government obligations.

Conduct monitoring reviews of all Section 108 projects and ensure that borrowers comply with all loan agreement provisions and HUD regulations.

We recommend that HUD’s Deputy Assistant Secretary for Grant Programs instruct City officials to provide documentation to justify the $183 million in unsupported salary and fringe benefits and associated expenses charged to the CDBG-DR program. If documentation provided does not support the costs, this amount should be repaid from non-Federal funds.

We recommend that the Director of HUD’s New York Office of Community Planning and Development instruct Palladia officials to provide documentation to justify that the $1,615,057 in unsupported costs is associated with eligible program activities. Any unsupported costs determined to be ineligible should be reimbursed from non-Federal funds.

We recommend that the Director of HUD’s New York Office of Community Planning and Development instruct Palladia officials to strengthen oversight controls over disbursements to ensure that adequate supporting documentation is maintained and complies with applicable regulations.

We recommend that the Director of HUD’s New York Office of Community Planning and Development instruct Palladia officials to follow its policies and procedures for record-keeping to maintain records that adequately identify the source and application of funds provided for financially assisted activities.

We recommend that the Director of HUD’s New York Office of Community Planning and Development instruct Palladia officials to provide records detailing the funding sources of the non-Federal cash match for the six grant activities reviewed.

We recommend that the Director of HUD’s New York Office of Community Planning and Development instruct Palladia officials to provide source documentation to substantiate that the $584,579 in required non-Federal cash matching funds for five of the six program projects reviewed were met.

We recommend that the Director of HUD’s New York Office of Community Planning and Development instruct Palladia officials to reconcile its accounting records to ensure that total revenues and expenditures in its general ledgers reconcile to the revenues and expenditures reported in its annual performance reports and LOCCS.

Update selection rules for CAIVRS to provide for complete reporting of all ineligible borrowers to put $9.5 million to better use.

Status

In 2020, HUD suspended reporting delinquencies and defaults to the Credit Alert Verification Reporting System (CAIVRS) because these debts are owed to the lender and are not delinquent Federal debt. A debt is not delinquent until a payment is past due to HUD for a deficiency judgment against the borrower in connection with an FHA claim. Rather than add the missing borrowers to CAIVRS, HUD determined it would remove default and claim data from the system and use it to exclusively identify borrowers with delinquent Federal debt. This will resolve the issue of incomplete reporting of delinquent federal debts greater than 3 years old. As of early June 2024, the Office of Single Family Housing stated that it was on target to complete its action plan by June 28, 2024.

Analysis

To fully address this recommendation, HUD must provide evidence that it removed default and claim data from CAIVRS.

Implementation of this recommendation should result in HUD putting $9.5 million to better use.

We recommend that the Director of HUD’s Buffalo Office of Community Planning and Development instruct City officials to provide documentation to support the reasonableness and eligibility of the administrative program delivery costs charged to the CDBG program, including $597,048 in program delivery costs that could have been allocated to the State program, and repay the CDBG program from non-Federal funds any amounts determined to be unreasonable or ineligible.

Provide all supporting documentation associated with the $10,838,880 (Footnote 13) Total disbursements of $10,876,095 were adjusted to consider $37,215 questioned in recommendation 1D. in State CDBG, Section 108, and program income proceeds disbursed for the development of the sports complex, if HUD determines the plan to be feasible (recommendation 1A). HUD must determine the eligibility, reasonableness, and allocability of the funds disbursed. OCMA must reimburse its State CDBG program from non-Federal funds any amount determined ineligible.

We recommend that the Director, Office of Multifamily Asset Management, require that each Hub or field office review its refinanced Section 202/223(f) projects for debt service savings amounts, utilizing data provided from this audit for possible additional debt service savings. Where legally possible each Hub or field office should identify, account for by project, and use these amounts for current and future opportunities benefiting tenants or to fund reductions in housing assistance payments.

We recommend that the Director of HUD’s Detroit Office of Multifamily Housing Programs require the Authority to ensure that $31,148,477 in residual receipts for the 15 projects as of May 31, 2013, is used to reduce or offset housing assistance payments in accordance with HUD’s requirements.

We recommend that the Director of HUD’s Detroit Office of Multifamily Housing Programs require the Authority to reimburse the U.S. Treasury $608,337 ($77,856 436,759 $93,722) for the three projects with terminated program contracts.