We audited the City of Atlanta, GA, and its subrecipient, the Fulton County-City of Atlanta Land Bank Authority. We began our review of the City’s administration of its Neighborhood Stabilization Programs 1 (NSP1) and 3 (NSP3) grants because it aligns with our goal in the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General’s annual audit plan to improve HUD’s execution of and accountability for grant funds. Our audit objective was to determine whether the City of Atlanta administered the NSP1 and NSP3 grants of its subrecipient, the Fulton County-City of Atlanta Land Bank Authority, in accordance with HUD regulations.
The City did not properly administer the NSP1 and NSP3 grants of its subrecipient, the Land Bank, in accordance with Federal requirements. This condition occurred because the City did not maintain proper oversight of its subrecipient. In addition, the City and the Land Bank did not implement proper procedures to ensure that NSP funds were properly supported. Therefore, the City provided the Land Bank NSP funds without adequate assurance that the funds would be properly accounted for in accordance with HUD requirements.
We recommend that the Director of the Atlanta Office of Community Planning and Development require the City to (1) provide adequate monitoring to the Land Bank to ensure that the subrecipient follows Federal regulations, (2) provide adequate support for expenses totaling $48,985, (3) ensure that the Land Bank completes and clears all outstanding annual audits and develops and implements adequate financial and file management policies and procedures, and (4) reprogram the remaining NSP1 funds of $219,851 and NSP3 funds of $28,745 to another subrecipient or developer or reimburse the funds to the U.S. Treasury.