This report is for informational purposes only and does not represent an OIG perspective or position. The Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act was designed to bring an orderly and systematic means of Federal disaster assistance for State and local governments to carry out their responsibilities to aid citizens.  Although, State and local governments may carry out their responsibilities in an orderly and…

The Office of Community Planning and Development (CPD) manages $15.2 billion in disaster recovery funding appropriated by Congress in the Disaster Relief Appropriations Act of 2013 (Sandy Supplemental). CPD distributed the funds to 34 grantees as Community Development Block Grants-Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR). CPD uses a risk analysis process to rank grantees that pose the greatest risk to the integrity of its programs. According to CPD, the…

We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) procurement of major service contracts by the Office of the Chief Procurement Officer (OCPO) as part of our fiscal year 2016 audit plan and due to a hotline complaint regarding a contract for scanning services.  Our audit objective was to determine whether HUD had adequate procedures in place to plan and monitor major service contracts to prevent waste and abuse. HUD’s…

We audited the City of Pittsburgh, PA’s administration of its Community Development Block Grant program.  We conducted the audit because the City’s program had the second largest number of completed activities without accomplishment information reported nationwide.  Our audit objective was to determine whether the City administered its Block Grant program in accordance with applicable U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (…

The Digital Accountability and Transparency Act of 2014 (DATA Act) and implementation guidance provided in the Office of Management and Budget Memorandum M-15-12 mandates that Federal agencies must report their financial, budgetary and programmatic information to the USASpending.gov web site by the statutory May 2017 deadline. In our second of two Data Act Readiness Reviews, OIG reviewed the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (…

In accordance with the Chief Financial Officers Act of 1990, as amended, we are required to annually audit the consolidated financial statements of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). HUD reissued its fiscal year 2016 and 2015 (Restated) consolidated financial statements due to pervasive material errors that were identified by us. Our objective was to express an opinion on the fairness of HUD’s consolidated…

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General (OIG), reviewed preforeclosure sales under the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) program in the St. Louis, MO, area.  We found that the purchaser of a property being sold in a preforeclosure sale entered into a consulting agreement with the realtor.  The agreement required that when the purchaser later sold the property, he would pay half of the…

We reviewed the general and application controls over the Federal Housing Administration’s (FHA) Single Family Premiums Collection Subsystem – Periodic (SFPCS-P) and Single Family Acquired Asset Management System (SAMS) as part of the internal control assessments required for the fiscal year 2016 financial statement audit under the Chief Financial Officer’s Act of 1990.  Our objective was to review the general and application controls over…

We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) computing environment as part of the internal control assessments required for the fiscal year 2016 financial statement audit under the Chief Financial Officer’s Act of 1990.  Our objective was to assess the effectiveness of the controls over the New Core Interface Solution (NCIS) and PRISM™ and the impact of the implementation of release 3 of phase 1 of the New Core…

We audited the City of Tuscaloosa, Alabama’s Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) grant.  We selected the City for review because it was allocated more than $43 million in funding to recover from the tornadoes of April 2011.  Our audit objective was to determine whether the City of Tuscaloosa (1) ensured that only eligible projects were selected into the program, (2) ensured that funds were expended only for…

We audited Union County, NJ’s HOME Investment Partnerships Program based on a risk analysis of the County’s program that considered the amount of funding, the risk score assigned by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and our identification of potential issues.  The objective of the audit was to determine whether County officials had established and implemented adequate controls to ensure that the County’s program…

We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) oversight of its Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) program and found that 33 borrowers had more than 1 loan under the program.  Having multiple loans violated program requirements because HUD requires borrowers to reside in the mortgaged residence as their principal residence and borrowers may not have more than one principal residence at a time.  We referred…

We completed a review of the City of New York, Office of Management and Budget’s administration of the Interim Assistance Rapid Repairs Program, funded with Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) funds provided by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to assist in the disaster recovery and rebuilding efforts resulting from Hurricane Sandy.  The objective of the audit was to determine whether City…

This report was reissued on February 24, 2017, to correct Appendix A. This reissued report now correctly shows the monetary benefit associated with each recommendation. This report supplements our independent auditor’s report on the results of our audit of HUD’s principal financial statements for the fiscal years ending September 30, 2016 and 2015 (Restated) related to HUD’s internal controls and compliance with applicable laws, regulations,…

The Federal Information Security Modernization Act of 2014 (FISMA) directs Inspectors General to conduct an annual evaluation of the agency information security program.  FISMA, Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) establish information technology (IT) security guidance and standards for Federal agencies. We conducted this evaluation to assess…

We completed a review of the City of New York, Mayor’s Office of Housing Recovery Operations’ administration of the Build it Back Single Family Program, funded with Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) funds provided by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to assist in the disaster recovery and rebuilding efforts resulting from Hurricane Sandy.  The objective of the audit was to determine…

We audited the Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) assistance grant provided to the City of Springfield, MA, by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to assist in disaster recovery and rebuilding efforts resulting from damages caused by presidentially declared disasters.  The audit objective was to determine whether the City properly followed Federal procurement requirements and whether…

We audited the Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) assistance grant provided to the State of Connecticut by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to monitor the expenditures of CDBG-DR funds as required by the Disaster Relief Appropriations Act.  Additionally, the State was ranked first in a risk assessment of the five New England Hurricane Sandy grantees.  The audit objective was to…

We audited HUD’s compliance with the fiscal year 2015 travel and purchase card programs based on our required fiscal year 2014 risk assessment, which determined the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) agencywide charge card program to be at medium risk for fraud. Offices of inspector general are required to (1) conduct periodic assessments of the agency charge card programs, (2) perform analyses or audits as necessary, and…

The Office of Hospital Facilities (OHF) provides mortgage insurance for acute care hospitals.  The insurance it provides reduces risk to lenders and lowers borrowing costs for hospitals.  As of May 2016, the unpaid principal balance for its 105 insured mortgages was approximately $7 billion. OHF collects and generates many records to support its mission.  These records include application materials, internal reports, and…