Federal Reports

We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Federal Housing Administration, Home Affordable Modification Program’s (FHA-HAMP) policies for reporting nonincentivized loan modifications and filing partial claims. The audit was a result of a prior Office of Inspector General (OIG) external review in which we identified delays in reporting FHA-HAMP nonincentivized loan modifications and filing partial claims. This audit was also part of our annual audit plan. The objective of the audit was to determine whether there was a need for HUD to issue a policy requiring servicers to report FHA-HAMP nonincentivized loan modifications and file FHA-HAMP nonincentivized partial claims within specific timeframes.HUD’s FHA-HAMP loss mitigation policy did not include deadlines to ensure timely reporting for nonincentivized loan modifications and filing of nonincentivized partial claims. Therefore, the servicers were not obligated to always report or report in a timely manner nonincentivized loan modifications and file or file in a timely manner nonincentivized partial claims in FHA Connection (FHAC). This condition occurred because HUD was aware of these issues but have yet to establish a policy for reporting the terms of nonincentivized loan modifications and filing the nonincentivized partial claims within specified timeframes or deadlines to address them. As a result, mortgage data from HUD’s systems may not have accurately reflected the status of the FHA-insured mortgages for monitoring and financial reporting of the Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund (MMIF). In addition, our recent corrective action verification review showed that HUD’s Claims Subsystem programming did not always properly calculate the time between claims to suspend payment for claims that had a reported prior loss mitigation action within 24 months because the claims were not submitted in order. We recommend that the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Single Family Housing to (1) update HUD’s loss mitigation policies, to include deadlines for the servicers to file the FHA-HAMP nonincentivized partial claims, and consider imposing sanctions for noncompliance with these deadline requirements and (2) update HUD’s loss mitigation policies, to include deadlines for the servicers to report the new terms of the FHA-HAMP nonincentivized loan modifications, and consider imposing sanctions for noncompliance with these deadline requirements.

Amtrak (the company) contracted with the independent certified public accounting firm of Ernst & Young LLP to audit its consolidated financial statements as of September 30, 2019, and for the year then ended, and to provide a report on internal control over financial reporting and on compliance and other matters. Because the company receives federal assistance, it must obtain an audit performed in accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards.As required by the Inspector General Act of 1978, we monitored the audit activities of Ernst & Young to help ensure audit quality and compliance with auditing standards. Our monitoring focused on two Ernst & Young reports and disclosed no instances in which Ernst & Young did not comply, in all material respects, with generally accepted government auditing standards. We reached this conclusion by monitoring Ernst & Young’s audit activities, which included reviewing its reports, auditor independence and qualifications, audit plans, detailed testing results, summary work papers, and quality controls. We also attended key meetings.

DOJ News Release

What We Looked AtUnder the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) Circular Accounting of Drug Control Funding and Performance Summary (Circular), when drug-related obligations total less than $50 million and a detailed accounting would be an unreasonable burden, agencies may submit alternative reports. For this reason, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) submitted alternative Drug Control Obligation Summary and the Performance Summary reports. We reviewed the reports and related management assertions to determine the reliability of those assertions compliance with the Circular in all material respects. We conducted our review in accordance with generally accepted Government auditing standards for attestation engagements. Specifically, we reviewed selected accounting internal controls to determine whether drug control funds were properly identified in the accounting system. In addition, we reviewed NHTSA's internal controls for performance measures to gain an understanding of how the measures were developed. We limited our review processes to inquiries and analytical procedures appropriate for an attestation review according to the Circular's criteria.What We FoundNHTSA provided Drug Control Obligation Summary and Performance Summary reports, dated December 20, 2019. However, NHTSA found significant errors that netted to $245,000 in the obligations amount it reported, and we found a missing assertion in the Performance Summary report. On January 23, 2020, NHTSA addressed these errors and omissions and provided corrected reports.Other than the matters discussed above, that were subsequently corrected, we are not aware of any material modifications that should be made to NHTSA's fiscal year 2019 Drug Control Obligation Summary and Performance Summary reports in order for them to be in compliance with the Circular.

What We Looked AtUnder the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) Circular, Accounting of Drug Control Funding and Performance Summary (Circular), when drug-related obligations total less than $50 million and a detailed accounting would be an unreasonable burden, agencies may submit alternative reports. For this reason, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) submitted alternative Drug Control Obligation Summary and the Performance Summary reports. We reviewed the reports and related management assertions to determine the reliability of those assertions compliance with the Circular in all material respects. We conducted our review in accordance with generally accepted Government auditing standards for attestation engagements. Specifically, we reviewed selected accounting internal controls to determine whether drug control funds were properly identified in the accounting system. In addition, we reviewed FAA’s internal controls for performance measures to gain an understanding of how the measures were developed. We limited our review processes to inquiries and analytical procedures appropriate for an attestation review according to the Circular’s criteria.What We FoundFAA’s Drug Control Obligation Summary identified $20,516,000 of obligations from two of FAA’s drug control decision units. When we traced those obligations, we found no material exceptions. FAA’s performance targets for fiscal year 2019 were to: initiate regulatory investigations on 95 percent of all airmen involved in the sale or distribution of illegal drugs within 30 days of knowledge of a conviction or notification by law enforcement, ensure the aviation industry conducts random drug and alcohol testing of safety sensitive employees with results not exceeding 1 percent positives for drugs and 0.5 percent positives for alcohol, and conduct 1,205 drug and alcohol inspections of the aviation industry to ensure compliance with Federal regulations. FAA indicated that it met its performance targets.Based on our review, we are not aware of any material modifications that should be made to FAA’s fiscal year 2019 Drug Control Obligation Summary and Performance Summary reports in order for them to be in accordance with the Circular.

We conducted an attestation review of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Special Needs, Continuum of Care Homeless Assistance Grants Program, regarding drug control accounting and associated management assertions for fiscal year 2019. As required by Federal statute 21 U.S.C. 1704(d)(1), we reviewed HUD’s drug control accounting, including its written assertions. Our responsibility is to express a conclusion on the subject matter or assertion based on our review. We performed review procedures on HUD’s assertions and the accompanying fiscal year 2019 reports. Based upon our review, we are not aware of any material modifications that should be made to HUD’s assertions or the accompanying fiscal year 2019 reports in order for them to be in accordance with Office of National Drug Control Policy requirements.