Federal Reports

We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Office of Single Family Housing’s efforts to increase the supply of affordable housing.  Our audit objective was to determine whether HUD met its intended outcome to increase the supply of affordable housing to owner-occupants, governmental entities, and HUD-approved non-profits by expanding the exclusive listing periods for its Real Estate Owned (REO) properties and Claims Without Conveyance of Title (CWCOT) program.

HUD’s efforts to increase the supply of affordable housing to owner-occupants, HUD-approved non-profits, and government entities by expanding the exclusive listing periods in its REO and CWCOT properties had a minimal impact on the supply of affordable housing.  To help increase the supply of affordable housing, HUD expanded the exclusive listing period for the Real Estate Owned (REO) program from 15 days to 30 days and created an exclusive listing period of 30 days for the sale of CWCOT post-foreclosure properties.  Based on preliminary HUD sales data between January 2020 and April 2024, the REO program’s policy expansion of the exclusive listing period from 15 to 30 days (Mortgagee Letter 2022-01) resulted in at least a 14 percent increase in the proportion of exclusive listing owner-occupants to total sales.  Before issuing Mortgagee Letter 2022-08, which created the exclusive listing period for the CWCOT program, HUD did not have an exclusive listing period for the CWCOT program.  Therefore, HUD had no data to compare the possible effects of the exclusive listing period.  However, based on our review and analysis, 115 investors were able to purchase homes during the restricted exclusive listing period, contrary to the guidance in mortgagee letter.  

HUD performed an analysis of REO sales during fiscal years 2023 and 2024 which found its efforts to increase the supply of affordable housing had mixed results.  HUD determined that the increased exclusive listing periods had a limited impact on REO and CWCOT sales.  As a result, HUD rescinded the mortgagee letters that expanded the exclusive listing periods for both programs.  Because of these changes, we were unable to fully address the audit objective.  The memorandum contains no recommendations.

This Office of Inspector General (OIG) Healthcare Facility Inspection program report describes the results of a focused evaluation of the care provided at the VA Sierra Nevada Health Care System in Reno. 

This evaluation focused on five key content domains:
     •    Culture
     •    Environment of care
     •    Patient safety
     •    Integrated veteran care
     •    Veteran-centered safety net

The OIG issued two recommendations for VA to correct identified deficiencies in two domains:
   1.    Environment of care
     •    Medical equipment storage
   2.    Patient safety
     •    Service-level workflows for test result communication

This Office of Inspector General (OIG) Healthcare Facility Inspection program report describes the results of a focused evaluation of the care provided at the Healthcare Facility Inspection of the VA Central California Health Care System in Fresno. 

This evaluation focused on five key content domains:
     •    Culture
     •    Environment of care
     •    Patient safety
     •    Primary care
     •    Veteran-centered safety net

The OIG issued seven recommendations for VA to correct identified deficiencies in three domains:
   1.    Environment of care
     •    Badge holder responsibilities
     •    Signs
     •    Privacy curtains, preventive equipment maintenance, splash resistant bottom shelves
     •    Expired, damaged, and contaminated medications
     •    Pharmaceutical grade medication refrigerators
   2.    Primary care
     •    Staffing
   3.    Veteran-centered safety net
     •    Housing and Urban Development–Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing program staffing

The objective of this audit was to determine the extent to which the National Collections Program had effective controls over the processes to award monies from the Collections Care and Preservation Fund (CCPF) and ensure that these funds were spent in accordance with their intended purposes.

We made nine recommendations for Smithsonian management to strengthen controls over the awarding and monitoring of CCPF funds, ensure that recipient units timely submit interim and final reports on project results, and require that units follow proper procedures in administering the Pan-Smithsonian Cryo Initiative. Management concurred with all nine recommendations.

In March 2025, we identified and conveyed to the Department suspicious activity related to parent information used on multiple dependent student Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) forms. At the time, FSA flagged these students for identity verification and we issued “Fraud Watch Issue 1: Potentially Fraudulent Activity Involving Parent Information Included on FAFSA.” In June 2025, we initiated analysis of additional data and ultimately found that this pattern of activity involving dependent students with unusual parent data on the FAFSA had continued. We determined that 12,026 dependent student identities submitted FAFSAs associated with 1,991 parent identities where it is unlikely that the student and parent are related or associated. As a result, these FAFSA submissions have a high likelihood of being fraudulent—a potential loss of almost $3.5 million in Federal student aid associated with these FAFSA submissions during award year 2024–2025. We recommend that FSA (1) work with the IRS to implement additional controls to detect and prevent the misuse of stolen identities on FAFSA submissions, especially fraud schemes involving the use of potentially stolen student identities and nonrelated, potentially stolen parent identities.  And (2) conduct risk-based verification and validation procedures at the time FSA IDs are created. This can prevent the improper disbursement of Federal student aid based on fraudulent FAFSA submissions containing stolen identities. 

BLM generally accounted for helium royalties collected; however, it did not always identify, track, collect, and properly oversee helium royalties.