In accordance with our annual audit plan and due to concerns regarding the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) capacity to handle the increasing demand for loans insured by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), we initiated an audit of HUD’s Philadelphia, PA, Homeownership Center (Center). This is the first of two audit reports that we plan to issue on the Center’s capacity to process current demand for FHA loans. The…

We completed a review of the District of Columbia’s (grantee) administration of HOME Investment Partnerships Program (HOME) funds that it provided to CEMI-Parkside Associates, LLP (Parkside Associates), a limited partnership managed by developer H.R. Crawford. The funds were provided for the rehabilitation/construction of a high rise property known as Parkside Terrace Apartments (Parkside Terrace). We initiated the review in response to a…

We initiated the audit of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) efforts to recover the City of New London, CT, Housing Authority (Authority) due to its longstanding troubled status. The Authority has had significant management deficiencies for more than 10 years, and HUD identified the Authority as “overall troubled” in May of 2004. Our objective for this audit was to evaluate HUD’s effectiveness in identifying and helping…

We completed a capacity review of the County of San Bernardino’s (County) Neighborhood Stabilization Program (Program). We performed the audit because Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 reviews are part of the Office of the Inspector General’s annual audit plan and the Program was identified as high risk. In addition, the County was awarded significant Program funds of $22.7 million. Our objective was to determine whether the County…

We completed a capacity review of the City of Fresno’s (City) Neighborhood Stabilization Program (Program). We performed the audit because Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 reviews are part of the Office of the Inspector General’s annual audit plan and the program was identified as high risk. In addition, the City was awarded a $10.9 grant. Our objective was to determine whether the City had sufficient capacity and the necessary…

We reviewed the U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD’s) guidance on using American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act) capital funding for physical needs assessments. Our objective was to determine whether HUD’s guidance to grantees on using Recovery Act capital funds for physical needs assessments was sufficient to ensure grantees had the information needed to avoid missing the grant obligation deadline of…

We performed this review at the request of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) Multifamily Program Center, Richmond field office, due to concerns regarding the appropriateness of HUD's current regulatory agreement with the Yorkville Cooperative (Cooperative). Our objective was to determine if HUD entered into the appropriate regulatory agreement with the Cooperative for its Section 221(d)(3) program. HUD and…

We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Office of Healthy Homes and Lead Hazard Control’s (OHHLHC) selection procedures used to award American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act) grants. Our objective was to determine whether OHHLHC awarded (1) Recovery Act funds in accordance with the selection criteria specified in the fiscal year 2008 notices of funding availability (notices) and the Recovery Act and…

We completed a capacity review of the County of Riverside’s (County) Neighborhood Stabilization Program (Program). We performed the audit because Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 reviews are part of the Office of the Inspector General’s annual audit plan and the program was identified as high risk. In addition, the County was awarded significant Program funds of $48.6 million. Our objective was to determine whether the County had…

We performed a review of the Lutheran Gardens Corporation (Corporation) trust fund account in response to a HUD request, dated March 30, 2009. HUD believed that as much as $2.72 million was withdrawn from a trust account in violation of a trust agreement (agreement) with HUD, dated April 22, 2005, and questioned certain disbursements. Our objective was to determine whether the Corporation withdrew and expended trust funds in accordance with…

We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) annual contributions contracts (contract) for performance-based Section 8 contract administration (PBCA). We audited this contract because our prior audit of HUD payments to the PBCAs for certain performance standards indicated that HUD was not getting the best value for the dollars spent on the PBCA’s services. Our audit objective was to determine whether the performance-…

We audited the City of Los Angeles’ Community Development Department (City) as a result of problems noted during a prior audit involving activities administered by the Community Redevelopment Agency of the City of Los Angeles (subrecipient). Our objective was to determine whether Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds were administered in accordance with HUD’s requirements for the CDBG program as they relate to a specific subrecipient…

In this report, we provide additional details to supplement our Report on the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) Fiscal Years 2009 and 2008 Financial Statements, which is included in HUD's Fiscal Year 2009 Performance and Accountability Report. In OIG's opinion, based on our audit and the reports of other auditors, the financial statements were presented fairly, in all material respects, in conformity with…

This report presents the results of Urbach Kahn and Werlin LLP (UKW) audit of the fiscal year 2009 and 2008 financial statements of the Federal Housing Administration (FHA). The report on FHA’s financial statements, dated November 9, 2009 includes an unqualified opinion on FHA’s financial statements. The report contains four significant deficiencies in FHA’s internal controls and one reportable instance of noncompliance with laws and regulations…

We audited the U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) controls over Housing Choice Voucher program payments for deceased tenants and invalid Social Security numbers as part of the regional audit plan. In previous audits of public housing agencies (agencies), we identified problems with excess housing assistance payments for deceased tenants. We wanted to determine whether HUD monitored agencies' actions in response…

This report presents the results of Carmichael, Brasher, Tuvell and Company's (CBTC) audit of the Government National Mortgage Association's (Ginnie Mae) financial statements for the fiscal years ended September 30, 2009 and 2008. In CBTC's opinion, the financial statements present fairly, in all material respects, Ginnie Mae's financial position as of September 30, 2009 and September 30, 2008 and the results of its…

We audited HUD's process for monitoring recipient reporting for the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act). The Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board (Board), created by the Recovery Act, has required the Inspector General community to evaluate Federal agencies' process for monitoring recipient reporting of Recovery Act funds for the quarter ending September 30, 2009. The audit reports are to be issued…

We audited the City of Los Angeles Housing Department (City) as a result of two complaints alleging violations of affordable housing and low-income housing tax credit regulations at the NoHo Commons housing development (development), which was partially funded with HOME funds and administered by the Community Redevelopment Agency of Los Angeles (subrecipient). Our objective was to determine whether the alleged violations had merit and warranted…

We reviewed the Office of Native American Programs' (ONAP) Front-End Risk Assessment (FERA) for the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act) funding for Native American Block Grant housing programs as part of our annual audit plan. Our objective was to determine whether the FERA complied with the Office of Management and Budget's (OMB) guidance for implementation of the Recovery Act, the Recovery Act's…

We performed a review of the San Diego Square (Square) project in response to a hotline complaint. The complainant stated that San Diego Kind Corporation (Corporation) misappropriated a lease prepayment of $480,060 and HUD failed to enforce program rules and regulations after detecting the misappropriation. Our objective was to determine whether the complaint was valid. We were unable to determine whether the allegations were valid. The…