Federal Reports

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General, audited the City of Joplin, MO’s Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) program because the City was awarded more than $45 million inCDBG-DR funds in April 2012 and received an additional $113 million in May 2013. We previously audited the City’s CDBG-DR program in 2013 and issued audit report 2014-KC-1002. At that time, the City had obligated only $50,000 and had spent only $20,280. Our audit objective for this report was to determine whether the City complied with the requirements of Section 3 of the Housing and Urban Development Act of 1968 in its CDBG-DR program. The City did not always comply with the requirements of Section 3 of the Housing and Urban Development Act of 1968 for its CDBG-DR program. It did not always direct employment and other economic opportunities generated from CDBG-DR funding to low- and very low-income persons and the businesses that employed them. In addition, it did not always incorporate the Section 3 clause into its contracts. As a result, the City may have denied low- and very low-income residents and the businesses that employed them more than $2.2 million in economic benefits.We recommend that the Director of HUD’s Kansas City, KS, Office of Community Planning and Development require the City to develop a checklist or other processes to verify that all contractors implement their Section 3 plans to ensure that the City spends disaster funds in compliance with the requirements to ensure that $2.2 million in CDBG-DR funds are put to better use in the future. We also recommend that the Director of HUD’s Kansas City, KS, Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity provide Section 3 technical assistance to the City and monitor the City’s compliance with Section 3 requirements.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General audited Boulder County because it is a significant recipient of the State of Colorado’s more than $320 million Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery grant, having received grants of more than $6 million. Our audit objective was to determine whether Boulder approved its grants and procured consultants in accordance with applicable Federal requirements.Boulder County generally approved its grants and procured consultants in accordance with applicable Federal requirements. The CDBG-funded projects reviewed were generally eligible, and consultants were properly procured. This report contains no recommendations.

A Management Advisory Recommending the Strengthening of the FTC Ethics Program by Extending Mandatory Annual Ethics Training to Employees at or Below the GS-13 Grade Level Who Occupy High Risk Positions.

Sleep Health Center (Sleep Health), based in Fort Myers, Florida, billed Medicare claims for polysomnography services that did not always comply with Medicare billing requirements. Of the 100 randomly selected beneficiaries that we reviewed, Sleep Health billed Medicare claims for polysomnography services that met Medicare billing requirements for 36 beneficiaries with 137 corresponding lines of service. However, Sleep Health billed Medicare claims for the remaining 64 beneficiaries with 149 corresponding lines of service that did not meet Medicare requirements, resulting in overpayments totaling $49,000. These errors occurred primarily because Sleep Health did not have adequate controls to ensure that it properly documented polysomnography services billed to Medicare. On the basis of our sample results, we estimated that Sleep Health received overpayments of at least $487,000 for the audit period.