Semiannual Report to Congress April 1, 2010, Through September 30, 2010 Profile of Performance
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U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Office of Inspector General Semiannual Report to Congress April 1, 2010, through September 30, 2010 Profile of Performance Audit profile of performance for the period April 1, 2010, through September 30, 2010 Results This reporting period FY 10 totals Recommendations that funds be put to better use1 $225,136,232 $813,264,347 Recommended questioned costs1 $109,919,327 $155,188,440 Collections from audits $14,150,383 $32,706,317 Administrative sanctions 3 4 Investigation profile of performance for the period April 1, 2010, through September 30, 2010 Results This reporting period FY 10 totals Funds put to better use $40,252,087 $76,756,637 Recoveries/receivables $126,694,457 $519,225,525 Arrests2 781 1,393 Indictments/informations 755 1,235 Convictions/pleas/pretrial diversions 389 898 Civil actions 79 129 Administrative sanctions3 168 371 Suspensions 41 90 Debarments 49 95 Personnel actions4 28 58 Search warrants 57 99 Subpoenas issued 1037 1827 Hotline profile of performance for the period April 1, 2010, through September 30, 2010 Results This reporting period FY 10 totals Funds put to better use $933,674 $1,297,454 Recoveries/receivables $140,614 $215,696 1 This represents all cost transactions during the period in which dollar amounts were reported with any recommendation. 2 Included in the arrests is our focus on the nationwide Fugitive Felon Initiative. 3 Administrative sanctions include limited denial of participation, relocations, removal from program participation, restraining orders, and systemic implication report submitted. 4 Personnel actions include reprimands; suspensions; demotions; or terminations of the employees of Federal, State, or local governments or of Federal contractors and grantees as the result of OIG activities. iii A Message from the Acting Inspector General It is with great pleasure that I present the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General’s (OIG) Semiannual Report to Congress, which summarizes the activities and accomplishments of our office for the second half of fiscal year 2010. HUD OIG employees–auditors, agents, attorneys, analysts, and support staff–continue their critical efforts to improve the economy and efficiency of programs administered by HUD. This has been an exceedingly busy and productive period for our office. Our key divisions, working collaboratively in a cross-disciplinary fashion, have achieved significant results on behalf of HUD beneficiaries and American taxpayers. As an active partner in the Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force, we have been at the forefront of getting the message out to our local communities about collaborative efforts across the government involving our State and local partners. Together, we are investigating and prosecuting significant financial crimes, ensuring swift punishment for those who seek unjust enrichment, recovering proceeds for those who are victimized, and addressing financial discrimination in the lending and financial markets. During the past 6 months, we have issued 115 audit reports with a total of 478 recommendations, including monetary results totaling nearly $278 million. Our investigative work has resulted in 755 indictments; 389 convictions; 168 administrative actions; and more than $126 million in fines, restitutions, and recoveries. We have also issued two inspections and evaluations reports: one on housing counseling services and one on HUD’s Credit Watch system. During this reporting period, we have also focused on our enhanced Civil Fraud Initiative, to which we have dedicated a cadre of forensic auditors. They are concentrating in a concerted fashion on recovering ill-gotten gains from those who commit fraud against HUD programs. The implementation of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and its effectiveness are discussed in our 28 audits of different entities, which looked at the capability and efficiency with which the money was spent. Recommendations and improvements on the utilization of these funds are continually provided to the Department. During this reporting period, we completed an initiative known as Operation Watch Dog. This effort started in response to the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) Commissioner’s concern regarding increased default rates against the FHA insurance fund for failed loans. In total, we reviewed 284 FHA loans that were underwritten by 15 direct endorsement lenders to determine whether the loans were underwritten in accordance with FHA requirements. We found that 140 of the 284 loans reviewed were not underwritten in accordance with requirements. As a result, FHA’s insurance fund lost or has the potential to lose nearly $11.2 million from this limited sample. We performed an internal audit of HUD’s Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) program to determine whether HUD’s adoption and reversal of an informal foreclosure deferral policy for HECM loans A Message from the Acting Inspector General iv that defaulted due to nonpayment of taxes and insurance had a negative effect on the HECM program. We found that HUD’s policy did have a negative effect on the universe of HECM loans and loan servicers. As a result, four servicers contacted were holding almost 13,000 defaulted loans with a maximum claim amount of more than $2.5 billion, and two of the four servicers said that they were awaiting HUD guidance on how to handle them. Further, the servicers had paid taxes and insurance premiums totaling more than $35 million for these 12,958 borrowers, and if HUD does not take action, additional payments will be made in the next 12 months. On another front, a key HUD OIG investigation exemplifies our commitment to pursuing fraud perpetuated against FHA’s mortgage insurance program. Lee Farkas, a former chairman of Taylor, Bean & Whitaker Mortgage Corporation (TBW), an FHA-approved direct endorsement lender and Government National Mortgage Association (Ginnie Mae) issuer, was arrested after his indictment in U.S. District Court, Ocala, FL, for allegedly committing conspiracy and bank, wire, and securities fraud. Farkas and others were indicted for allegedly selling phony or previously pledged loans to investors in the secondary mortgage market and causing TBW to submit false statements to HUD and Ginnie Mae. HUD and these programs experienced almost $2 billion in losses. Our investigators have also been focused on public corruption. The former Alamosa Housing Authority executive director and others were collectively sentenced in U.S. District Court, Denver, CO, to 37 months incarceration, 3 years supervised release, and 5 years probation and ordered to pay HUD nearly $640,000 in restitution for their earlier guilty pleas to committing theft by generating unauthorized housing authority checks. These examples of our audits and investigations show the exceptional work done by our staff, which has resulted in a significant positive impact on fraud and against misuse of taxpayer dollars. Our staff also conducted approximately 60 fraud and prevention awareness briefings to thousands of participants at all levels of government and industry in an effort to educate the public regarding improper activities. I am grateful to all of our employees nationwide who worked so tirelessly during this period. The continuing evolvement of OIG operations comes at an especially important time for the oversight community. Every day, HUD OIG increases its dedication and commitment to becoming a more efficient and effective organization, which enables us to become better at recovering taxpayer dollars and working with our partners to bring those to justice who would seek to harm our vital programs. We look forward to continuing to fulfill our important responsibilities and working with Congress in overseeing these vital programs which support our Nation’s citizenry. Michael P. Stephens Acting Inspector General A Message from the Acting Inspector General v Audit reports issued by program Single-family housing, 24% Multifamily housing, 3% Public and Indian housing, 36% Community planning and development, 29% Other programs, 8% Audit monetary benefits identified by program Single-family housing, 15% Multifamily housing, 2% Public and Indian housing, 24% Community planning and development, 54% Other programs,* 5% * Other programs include financial and information system audits. Audit monetary benefits identified in millions of dollars $183.0 $200 $180 $160 $140 $120 $79.3 $100 $80 $51.1 $60 $18.2 $40 $5.1 $20 $0 Single-family Multifamily Public and Community Other housing housing Indian housing planning and programs development Audit Charts vi Investigative cases opened by program area (total: 711) Single-family housing, 34% (240) Public and Indian housing, 41% (291) Multifamily housing, 8% (55) Community planning and development, 9% (67) Other, 8% (58) Investigative recoveries by program area (total: $126,694,457) Single-family housing, 88% ($111,975,850) Public and Indian housing, 8% ($10,308,337) Multifamily housing, 2% ($1,910,932) Community planning and development, 2% ($2,283,104) Other, 0% ($216,234) Investigative cases closed by program area (total: 331) Single-family housing, 22% (72) Public and Indian housing, 43% (143) Multifamily housing, 9% (29) Community planning and development, 15% (51) Other, 11% (36) Investigation Charts vii Acronyms List AIGA Assistant Inspector General for Audit AIGI Assistant Inspector General for Investigation ARIGA Assistant Regional Inspector General for Audit ARRA American Recovery and