We audited the National Community Reinvestment Coalition’s (grantee) compliance with provisions in its Fair Housing Initiatives Program grant agreement with the U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The audit was conducted based on a congressional request, which raised questions regarding the grantee’s compliance with conflict-of-interest provisions in its grant agreement with HUD. Our objective was to determine whether the…

In accordance with the Government Corporation Control Act as amended (31 U.S.C. 9105), the Office of Inspector General engaged the independent certified public accounting firm of Clifton Gunderson LLP (CG) to audit the fiscal years 2011 and 2010 financial statements of the Federal Housing Administration (FHA). The contract required that the audit be performed according to Generally Accepted Government Auditing Standards (GAGAS). CG is…

In accordance with the Government Corporation Control Act as amended (31 U.S.C. 9105), the Office of Inspector General engaged the independent certified public accounting firm of Clifton Gunderson LLP (CG) to audit the fiscal years 2011 financial statements of the Government National Mortgage Association (Ginnie Mae). The contract required that the audit be performed according to Generally Accepted Government Auditing Standards (GAGAS). Ginnie…

We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) use of its Integrated Disbursement and Information System to provide oversight of activities in its Community Development Block Grant program. The audit was performed based on the Office of the Inspector General’s (OIG) annual audit plan and its strategic plan to help HUD improve its fiscal responsibilities. The objective of the audit was to assess the adequacy of HUD’s use…

We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) compliance with initial expenditure requirements related to six programs funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA). The objectives of our audit were to determine whether (1) HUD grantees complied with their initial expenditure requirements; (2) recaptures were properly recorded and controls over the recapture process existed and complied with the…

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of Inspector General audited the Office of Healthy Homes and Lead Hazard Control’s monitoring of its American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 grant recipients. The audit was part of the activities in our fiscal year 2011 annual audit plan. We selected Healthy Homes for audit based upon an internal audit suggestion regarding Healthy Homes’ monitoring of its grant recipients…

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of Inspector General audited Countrywide Bank, FSB (Countrywide),* a Federal Housing Administration (FHA) supervised lender** approved to originate, underwrite, and submit mortgages for insurance under the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) direct endorsement program. We selected Countrywide based on its average default-to-claim rate of 6.76 percent for the FHA-…

We conducted a review to determine whether IndyMac Bank followed Federal Housing Administration (FHA) policies and procedures when it originated FHA-insured loans. We focused on loans secured by California properties and that were in claim or default status as of February 12, 2009. Within this group, we identified a set of questionable loans originated by IndyMac that had been generated by Beechwood Incorporated. Beechwood is a company…

In response to a request for review from the Office of the Department Operations and Coordination, we are auditing the Office of Labor Relations (Labor Relations) wage restitution and deposit process. We found Labor Relations has weak internal controls over their Deposit account. Our objective was to gain an understanding of the deposit process and determine whether the controls used to administer and distribute restitution payments were…

We audited the Office of Sustainable Housing and Communities’ implementation of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) partnership with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to coordinate Federal weatherization efforts nationwide. This audit was part of our fiscal year 2010 audit plan. Our objective was to determine whether HUD multifamily properties were eligible to receive American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding…

We reviewed alleged violations of U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loan origination requirements by the subject. We concluded that the subject falsely certified to the truthfulness and accuracy of documents and information in mortgage loan applications on FHA-insured loans. The Department of Justice filed a complaint under the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement…

We reviewed alleged violations of U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loan origination requirements by the subject. We concluded that the subject made false statements on a mortgage loan application for one property, and falsely acted as the seller of a second property on behalf of another person. The Department of Justice filed a complaint under the Financial Institutions Reform,…

HUD OIG conducted an inspection of the Washington, DC Department of Housing and Community Development’s (DHCD) participation in HUD’s ESG program in order to determine whether DHCD (the grantee) and its sub-recipients: (1) appropriately used HUD grant funds for eligible homeless assistance services, and (2) accurately entered required information into the Integrated Disbursement and Information System (IDIS). We determined that DHCD did not…

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development – Office of Inspector General audited the Federal Housing Administration because we noted during previous audit work that FHA might not have a system in place to track lenders who voluntarily left the FHA program with outstanding indemnification agreements. Our objective was to determine whether FHA prevented corporate officers from participating in FHA programs after those officers left…

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) oversight of tenants who improperly received multiple housing subsidies in the Section 8 and public housing programs. Our objective was to determine whether HUD ensured that housing authorities resolved items listed on the Enterprise Income Verification (EIV) system’s multiple subsidy…

We audited the Housing Authority of the County of San Bernardino’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 Public Housing Capital Fund formula and competitive grants. We performed the audit because Recovery Act reviews are part of the Office of Inspector General’s (OIG) annual plan and the Los Angeles Office Public Housing’s 2011 risk assessment rated the Authority as high risk based on data from the Authority’s most recent Real Estate…

We audited the Tule River Indian Housing Authority in response to a complaint involving the Authority’s alleged misuse and improper procurement of $303,721 in Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 Native American Housing Block Grant funding to be used for cabinet construction work on 38 of its housing units. Our overall objective was to determine whether the Authority followed procurement and contracting requirements and used its Recovery Act…

We audited the City of Compton’s (City) HOME Investment Partnerships Program (HOME) in response to a citizen complaint generally alleging misuse of HOME funds by the Community Redevelopment Agency (subrecipient) administering the program, including allegations stating that more than $4 million in HOME funds was missing and that program objectives were not met. Our audit objective was to determine the validity of the complaint allegations,…

HUD OIG conducted an evaluation of Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) Loan Payments Made After Death of Borrower. A HUD OIG query of the HUD Single Family Data Warehouse (SFDW) disclosed that servicers of home equity conversion mortgages  were making payments to borrowers after the borrowers’ date of death.  Therefore, the Inspections and Evaluations Division conducted a review to validate the HECM data and to determine whether…

We audited the Disaster Recovery Grants Reporting (DRGR) system to determine whether adequate controls were in place to safeguard and accurately track and report $1.93 billion in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recover Act) funds allocated to the Office of Community Planning and Development’s (CPD) Neighborhood Stabilization Program 2. We found that the improvements that CPD made to the DRGR system within the last year were…