Priority Open Recommendations: Department of Housing and Urban Development
Fast Facts
Each year, we make more than 1,000 recommendations to help improve the federal government. We alert department heads to where they can save the most money, address issues on our High Risk List, or significantly improve government operations.
This report outlines our 13 priority open recommendations for the Department of Housing and Urban Development as of June 2021.
For example, HUD should review how its Real Estate Assessment Center conducts inspections of HUD's multifamily properties including public housing.
Since our previous letter in April 2020, HUD implemented 5 of our priority recommendations.
Highlights
What GAO Found
In April 2020, GAO identified 17 priority recommendations for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Since then, HUD has implemented 5 of those recommendations by, among other things, taking actions to help HUD strengthen the monitoring of disaster recovery block grant funds and improving information technology management. In June 2021, GAO identified 1 additional priority recommendation for HUD, bringing the total number to 13. This recommendation involved improving the Real Estate Assessment Center's physical inspection process. The 13 recommendations fall into the following areas:
- Improve Real Estate Assessment Center's physical inspection process
- Address Ginnie Mae's risk management and staffing-related challenges
- Strengthen processes to address lead paint hazards
- Enhance oversight of Moving to Work
- Improve cybersecurity risk management and workforce planning practices
- Improve information technology management
HUD's continued attention to these issues could lead to significant improvements in government operations.
Why GAO Did This Study
Priority open recommendations are the GAO recommendations that warrant priority attention from heads of key departments or agencies because their implementation could save large amounts of money; improve congressional and/or executive branch decision-making on major issues; eliminate mismanagement, fraud, and abuse; or ensure that programs comply with laws and funds are legally spent, among other benefits. Since 2015 GAO has sent letters to selected agencies to highlight the importance of implementing such recommendations.