Federal Reports

As required by the Inspector General Act of 1978 (as amended), this Semiannual Report summarizes the activities of the Department of Transportation Office of Inspector General for the preceding 6-month period.

The audit of a CNCS Social Innovation Fund award to Youthprise and four of its six subgrantees (Amherst H. Wilder Foundation, MIGIZI Communications, Sauk-Rapids Rice, and Guadalupe Alternative Programs) identified questioned Federal costs of $626,099, questioned match costs of $990,137, and compliance findings. These costs tested were incurred between August 1, 2016 and June 30, 2018. Most of the questioned costs identified were associated with (1) Youthprise improperly awarding sole-source contracts; and (2) subgrantees’ timekeeping deficiencies. Overall, CNCS’s proposed actions addressed our recommendations. CNCS disagreed with five of 14 recommendations due to the grant period ending and the absence of future funding. CNCS has committed to monitoring Youthprise’s compliance with Federal regulations for future grants – which satisfies the intent of these recommendations.Also, Youthprise and its subgrantees took corrective actions to improve controls over monitoring contractors; implemented a new timekeeping system and engaged CNCS preferred vendors to enhance its compliance with National Service Criminal History Checks.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General (OIG) conducted this study to follow up on information we shared previously regarding what information servicers of mortgage loans insured by Federal Housing Administration (FHA) are providing to borrowers regarding forbearance options available under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act).We reported on April 27, 2020, that our review of 30 FHA servicers who service approximately 90 percent of FHA loans, revealed that FHA servicer websites provided incomplete, inconsistent, dated, and unclear guidance to borrowers related to their forbearance options under the CARES Act. We cautioned that lack of clear and consistent guidance from FHA servicers and enforcement by FHA of that guidance allows servicers to leave struggling homeowners unable to make informed decisions about paying their mortgages and relief that may be available to them during this pandemicWe found that despite virtually all of the top 30 servicers updating information on their websites on options available to borrowers during this COVID-19 emergency, some servicer websites continue to provide information that could mislead or confuse borrowers or provide little or no information to borrowers related to their forbearance options under the CARES Act.

OIG Survey on FTC Metrics and Challenges

Audit of Federal Trade Commission Interagency Agreement Processes