CDBG-DR Program Generally Met Low- and Moderate-Income Requirements

We audited the Office of Community Planning and Development’s (CPD) monitoring and oversight of the Community Development Block Grant - Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) program. The objective of the audit was to determine whether CPD had effectively and efficiently designed its CDBG-DR program requirements and monitoring to ensure that the grantees meet statutory and other Federal low- and moderate-income (LMI) requirements. Generally, CPD had effectively and efficiently designed its CDBG-DR program requirements and monitoring to ensure that the grantees met the various LMI requirements. Almost all (98 percent) of the closed grants met the requirements, and a majority (80 percent) of the active grants were meeting the requirements. Of the 193 grants reviewed, 1 closed grant did not meet the requirements, and 28 active grants needed to budget funds to meet the requirements. We identified opportunities for CPD to improve its monitoring and oversight of its grantees’ compliance with the requirements, such as (1) including an additional overall LMI benefit calculation in quarterly performance reports (QPRs) and (2) establishing budgeting benchmarks. If CPD implements the recommended improvements, it could potentially prevent other grants from becoming noncompliant and reduce the number of grantees that need to budget sufficient funds to LMI activities. The changes could also improve the accuracy of reporting.