Review and update its procurement policy for the 2017 CDBG-DR grant to address weaknesses identified, including but not limited to required contract clauses, processes for soliciting and accepting noncompetitive proposals, and performing cost or price analyses before receiving bids or quotations, among other issues.
2020-AT-1002 | March 16, 2020
The Puerto Rico Department of Housing, San Juan, PR, Should Strengthen Its Capacity To Administer Its Disaster Grants
Community Planning and Development
- Status2020-AT-1002-001-HOpenClosed
- Status2020-AT-1002-001-IOpenClosed
Ensure that the 2017 CDBG-DR procurement policy addresses the establishment of a contract register that, at a minimum, contains the procurement information specified in section 3.8 of HUD’s Buying Right Guide regarding the PRDOH’s acquisitions of goods and services, as well as of its subrecipients and partners.
- Status2020-AT-1002-001-JOpenClosed
Establish procurement policies and procedures for the 2008 CDBG-DR grant to ensure compliance with 2 CFR 200.318-326, including but not limited to procedures to ensure full and open competition, supporting independent cost estimates, properly documenting the procurement history, and including required clauses in contracts, among other issues.
- Status2020-AT-1002-001-KOpenClosed
Continue to fill its vacancies with qualified and trained staff, thus ensuring that staffing levels remain adequate to administer the 2017 and 2008 CDBG-DR grant funds.
- Status2020-AT-1002-001-LOpenClosed
Structure the internal audit division within a framework that can ensure its organizational independence and allow the internal audit activity to fulfill its responsibilities.
- Status2020-AT-1002-001-MOpenClosed
Provide additional training and technical assistance to the PRDOH on the development of policies and procedures to ensure that procedures comply with applicable Federal and grant requirements.
- Status2020-AT-1002-002-AOpenClosed$55,010Questioned Costs
Recommendations with questioned costs identify costs: (A) resulting from an alleged violation of a law, regulation, contract, grant, or other document or agreement governing the use of Federal funds; (B) that are not supported by adequate documentation (also known as an unsupported cost); or (C) that appear unnecessary or unreasonable.
Submit supporting documentation showing that contracts and purchase orders complied with Federal and its own procurement requirements and that these were reasonable and necessary costs or reimburse the CDBG-DR program $55,010 from non-Federal funds.
- Status2020-AT-1002-002-BOpenClosed$361,501Funds Put to Better Use
Recommendations that funds be put to better use estimate funds that could be used more efficiently. For example, recommendations that funds be put to better use could result in reductions in spending, deobligation of funds, or avoidance of unnecessary spending.
Submit supporting documentation showing that contracts and purchase orders complied with Federal and its own procurement requirements and that these were reasonable and necessary costs or cancel the $361,501 in unpaid obligations related to CDBG-DR funds.
- Status2020-AT-1002-002-COpenClosed
Revise and finalize the procurement procedures to ensure compliance with applicable Federal requirements, including but not limited to procedures to ensure full and open competition, supporting independent cost estimates, properly documenting the procurement history, and including required clauses in contracts, among other issues.
2020-FO-0003 | February 07, 2020
Additional Details To Supplement Our Fiscal Year 2019 U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Financial Statements Audit
Community Planning and Development
- Status2020-FO-0003-001-OOpenClosed
Collaborate with OCFO to review methodologies used to produce grant accrual estimates, to include testing and verification of the resulting accrual estimates.
- Status2020-FO-0003-003-AOpenClosed
Implement information security controls over the Section 108 loan guarantee database that prevent and detect unauthorized changes to program data (or implement an updated Section 108 loan guarantee database with information security controls that prevent and detect unauthorized changes to program data).
Chief Financial Officer
- Status2020-FO-0003-001-AOpenClosed
Ensure that all of the sampled amounts used for extrapolation in OCFO grant accrual validation estimates are properly supported with documentation that substantiates the amounts certified in the surveys.
- Status2020-FO-0003-001-BOpenClosed
Implement a refined accrual validation methodology, to include more comprehensive review procedures to substantiate the amounts certified by the grantee.
- Status2020-FO-0003-001-COpenClosed
Review CPD’s grant accrual estimation methodology to ensure that all assumptions and variables used are properly supported and verifiable with the validation procedure.
- Status2020-FO-0003-001-DOpenClosed
After PIH prepayment validations are completed, apply all corrections to CAM 1 codes and Voucher Management System (VMS) expenses to all of the data supporting the fiscal year 2019 beginning balance, and recalculate the fiscal year 2019 PIH prepayment estimate. Based on the recalculation, determine whether restatement is needed to the correct errors in the fiscal year 2019 estimate calculation to ensure consistency between comparative statements.
- Status2020-FO-0003-001-EOpenClosed
Revise its review of the PIH prepayment estimate calculations performed by contractors to ensure that the contractors are following the established methodology and any changes to the methodology are applied to the data supporting the beginning balance, if appropriate.
- Status2020-FO-0003-001-FOpenClosed
Review all duties currently assigned to action officials to determine which duties can be centralized within OCFO or its Federal shared service provider. For any duties that cannot be centralized, (1) provide an explanation as to why they cannot be centralized and (2) assign these duties to appropriate positions within the program offices. Further, update the Debt Collection Handbook to include any changes made as a result of the review.
- Status2020-FO-0003-001-GOpenClosed
Implement monitoring and control activities to ensure that all debt collection action officials perform their duties in accordance with the Debt Collection Handbook
- Status2020-FO-0003-001-HOpenClosed
In coordination with each program office, identify the possible debts that could arise from normal business and monitoring activities and create a listing of these scenarios. Based on this listing, implement control activities to ensure that all debts that result from these activities are considered in financial reporting, U.S. Department of the Treasury reporting, and debt collection activities.
- Status2020-FO-0003-001-IOpenClosed
Develop and implement a procedure that requires OCFO to identify and research all debts that are more than 120 days old to ensure (1) validity, (2) that proper debt collection efforts occur, and (3) that the status reported in the TROR is correct according to Treasury’s TROR requirements.