Audit 25514

Significant Deficiency 2022-004 Eligibility Federal Program U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development AL #14.871 & 14.879 Grant Award No. ND031-Housing Choice Vouchers & ND031-Mainstream Vouchers Grant Award Year 2022 Criteria The Authority must determine HAP assistance based on a calculation from the eligible tenant?s annual income, deductions and third party verification in accordance with HUD Section 8 Housing Voucher Program compliance requirements. Condition During our review of tenant files, one tenant?s verified income and utility allowances were incorrectly entered into the rent determination worksheet, resulting in the tenant?s HAP portion to be miscalculated. Third party verification of income was not conducted for one of the files in the sample. The aforementioned errors remained undetected through a second review, performed by another caseworker, of the tenant file. We also noted four tenant files were missing completed quality control worksheets, which function as the Authority?s primary internal review process to ensure an annual certification, at minimum, was performed and appropriate tenant information is documented. Context We tested a sample of forty files out of 259 active files for eligibility compliance. Effect Tenants may not be provided the proper housing assistance in accordance with their income and eligibility factors. Cause Lack of controls and oversight during the year. Repeat Finding This is a repeat finding of 2021-004. Recommendation We recommend the Authority follow its policy on calculating and applying the proper assistance to tenants receiving vouchers. We also emphasize performing a quality review over its tenant files to ensure all income and eligibility factors are properly determined. Views of Responsible Officials Management recognizes the detection failure and will determine the best steps to implement in order to create a more robust review process.

Significant Deficiency 2022-004 Eligibility Federal Program U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development AL #14.871 & 14.879 Grant Award No. ND031-Housing Choice Vouchers & ND031-Mainstream Vouchers Grant Award Year 2022 Criteria The Authority must determine HAP assistance based on a calculation from the eligible tenant?s annual income, deductions and third party verification in accordance with HUD Section 8 Housing Voucher Program compliance requirements. Condition During our review of tenant files, one tenant?s verified income and utility allowances were incorrectly entered into the rent determination worksheet, resulting in the tenant?s HAP portion to be miscalculated. Third party verification of income was not conducted for one of the files in the sample. The aforementioned errors remained undetected through a second review, performed by another caseworker, of the tenant file. We also noted four tenant files were missing completed quality control worksheets, which function as the Authority?s primary internal review process to ensure an annual certification, at minimum, was performed and appropriate tenant information is documented. Context We tested a sample of forty files out of 259 active files for eligibility compliance. Effect Tenants may not be provided the proper housing assistance in accordance with their income and eligibility factors. Cause Lack of controls and oversight during the year. Repeat Finding This is a repeat finding of 2021-004. Recommendation We recommend the Authority follow its policy on calculating and applying the proper assistance to tenants receiving vouchers. We also emphasize performing a quality review over its tenant files to ensure all income and eligibility factors are properly determined. Views of Responsible Officials Management recognizes the detection failure and will determine the best steps to implement in order to create a more robust review process.

Significant Deficiency 2022-004 Eligibility Federal Program U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development AL #14.871 & 14.879 Grant Award No. ND031-Housing Choice Vouchers & ND031-Mainstream Vouchers Grant Award Year 2022 Criteria The Authority must determine HAP assistance based on a calculation from the eligible tenant?s annual income, deductions and third party verification in accordance with HUD Section 8 Housing Voucher Program compliance requirements. Condition During our review of tenant files, one tenant?s verified income and utility allowances were incorrectly entered into the rent determination worksheet, resulting in the tenant?s HAP portion to be miscalculated. Third party verification of income was not conducted for one of the files in the sample. The aforementioned errors remained undetected through a second review, performed by another caseworker, of the tenant file. We also noted four tenant files were missing completed quality control worksheets, which function as the Authority?s primary internal review process to ensure an annual certification, at minimum, was performed and appropriate tenant information is documented. Context We tested a sample of forty files out of 259 active files for eligibility compliance. Effect Tenants may not be provided the proper housing assistance in accordance with their income and eligibility factors. Cause Lack of controls and oversight during the year. Repeat Finding This is a repeat finding of 2021-004. Recommendation We recommend the Authority follow its policy on calculating and applying the proper assistance to tenants receiving vouchers. We also emphasize performing a quality review over its tenant files to ensure all income and eligibility factors are properly determined. Views of Responsible Officials Management recognizes the detection failure and will determine the best steps to implement in order to create a more robust review process.

Significant Deficiency 2022-004 Eligibility Federal Program U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development AL #14.871 & 14.879 Grant Award No. ND031-Housing Choice Vouchers & ND031-Mainstream Vouchers Grant Award Year 2022 Criteria The Authority must determine HAP assistance based on a calculation from the eligible tenant?s annual income, deductions and third party verification in accordance with HUD Section 8 Housing Voucher Program compliance requirements. Condition During our review of tenant files, one tenant?s verified income and utility allowances were incorrectly entered into the rent determination worksheet, resulting in the tenant?s HAP portion to be miscalculated. Third party verification of income was not conducted for one of the files in the sample. The aforementioned errors remained undetected through a second review, performed by another caseworker, of the tenant file. We also noted four tenant files were missing completed quality control worksheets, which function as the Authority?s primary internal review process to ensure an annual certification, at minimum, was performed and appropriate tenant information is documented. Context We tested a sample of forty files out of 259 active files for eligibility compliance. Effect Tenants may not be provided the proper housing assistance in accordance with their income and eligibility factors. Cause Lack of controls and oversight during the year. Repeat Finding This is a repeat finding of 2021-004. Recommendation We recommend the Authority follow its policy on calculating and applying the proper assistance to tenants receiving vouchers. We also emphasize performing a quality review over its tenant files to ensure all income and eligibility factors are properly determined. Views of Responsible Officials Management recognizes the detection failure and will determine the best steps to implement in order to create a more robust review process.