Federal Reports

We conducted this evaluation due to the growing homeless crisis and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) establishing a goal of ending homelessness. Our objective was to evaluate the challenges that participating public housing agencies (PHA) face in meeting the goals and objectives of the HUD Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing (VASH) program.The results from our limited review may help HUD in addressing PHAs’ challenges in addressing homelessness among veterans. In addition, the results of our review will help HUD determine what is working and not working toward meeting its VASH goals and objectives.We sent an electronic questionnaire to a universe of 662 PHAs with a HUD VASH program. The majority of responding PHA executives and designated points of contact found that they had excellent or good relationships with their designated Veterans Affairs Medical Centers (VAMCs) and local HUD field offices to help administer their HUD VASH programs. In addition, the respondents believed that the local HUD and U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) field offices had excellent or good working relationships. Also, respondents expressed that the HUD requirements, including waivers and alternative requirements, were helpful in meeting their program goals and objectives. However, respondents were not able to use all of their allocated program vouchers. One of the reasons was the high cost of housing.

The NASA Office of Inspector General examined the costs associated with the Station’s continued use and maintenance, risks to its structure, NASA’s utilization of the ISS, and the Agency’s plans for commercialization of low Earth orbit.

We produced this Management Advisory to notify Small Business Administration (SBA) officials of serious concerns about potential improper payments in SBA’s Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) program.Our review of Treasury’s analysis of processed COVID-19 EIDL and emergency EIDL grants from March to November 2020 revealed that SBA’s lack of adequate pre-award controls during this period of review led to 75,180 COVID-19 EIDLs totaling over $3.1 billion and 117,135 emergency EIDL grants totaling over $550 million being disbursed to potentially ineligible recipients. Our preliminary review of Treasury’s DNP analytical summaries indicated SBA should reassess controls to ensure only eligible recipients obtained COVID-19 EIDLs and emergency EIDL grants. A portion of these applications have been identified as potential fraud risks in previous OIG reports. A significant percentage of COVID-19 EIDLs and emergency EIDL grants that Treasury found in federal data sources had also been identified in earlier OIG audit reports. SBA’s lack of adequate front-end controls to determine eligibility contributed to the distribution of COVID-19 EIDLs and emergency EIDL grants to potentially ineligible recipients.SBA should take immediate action to limit improper payments by strengthening existing controls and implementing additional internal controls to address improper payments, especially through the use of the DNP portal.To prevent potential improper payments, we recommended SBA use the batch match or continuous monitoring functions available in Treasury’s Do Not Pay portal to identify potentially ineligible applicants before disbursing COVID-19 EIDL program funds.

Resilience and Continuity. Semiannual Report to Congress for April 1, 2021 - September 30, 2021.

This report details the Office of Inspector General's Fall 2021 Semiannual Report to Congress. The following topics are included:• Overview of the SBA and the OIG• Pandemic Response Oversight• Small Business Access to Capital• Disaster Loan Program• Procurement Assistance• Agency Management• Other Significant OIG Activities• Statistical Highlights• Appendices