Finding Text
2025-003 Allowability of Rental Assistance Payments – Landlord Verifications U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT Continuum of Care Program—Assistance Listing No. 14.267 Hennepin County Contract HS00001366; Grant Period – Year ended June 30, 2025 Material Weakness in Internal Control over Compliance Criteria: 2 CFR 200.303 requires non-Federal entities to establish and maintain effective internal control over Federal awards to provide reasonable assurance that the entity is managing the awards in compliance with Federal statutes, regulations, and the terms and conditions of the Federal award. Agate Housing and Services, Inc.’s internal control policies require landlord verifications to be completed prior to submitting a rental assistance payment, as evidenced by a completed and filed W- 9 form. Condition: Documentation to support that Agate Housing and Services, Inc.’s landlord verification process was completed prior to the disbursement of rental assistance payments was not available for nine of the forty sampled transactions. Cause: During 2025, Agate Housing and Services, Inc. digitized its inventory of W-9 forms and retained only the most recent W-9 for each vendor. Older versions of W-9 forms were purged, and any missing W-9 documentation was likely lost during this conversion process. Effect: The landlord verification process is a key internal control to ensure the legitimacy and existence of landlords and to help prevent fraud or mismanagement in the disbursement of Federal funds. As a result of missing documentation, there is insufficient evidence to demonstrate that landlord verifications were performed prior rental assistance payments being made. Context: A statistically valid sample of 40 rental assistance payment transactions totaling $52,138 was selected for testing from a population of 393 transactions totaling $561,523. The audit identified nine payments to landlords that were disbursed prior to documentation evidencing completion of landlord verification. Known Questioned Costs: None. In five of the nine instances, landlord verification documentation was obtained after-the-fact, supporting the legitimacy of the payments. In the remaining four instances, the landlords were well-established business entities. No concerns regarding allowability were identified. Identification of Repeat Finding: Not a repeat finding. Recommendation: We recommend that Agate Housing and Services, Inc. strengthen internal controls to ensure landlord verifications are completed and required documentation, including W-9 forms, is obtained and retained for all vendors prior to the disbursement of rental assistance funds. Management should implement a procedure to verify that required documentation is present before payment approval. Views of Responsible Officials and Planned Corrective Actions: Agate Housing and Services, Inc. agrees with the finding and is in the process of strengthening its controls over the verification of landlords.