Finding 369490 (2023-002)

Finding 2023-002; Documentation of Eligibility Name of federal agency: Department of Housing and Urban Development Program title: National Housing Trust Fund Passed through: Oklahoma Housing Finance Authority (“OHFA”) OHFA Contract Number: 19-NHTF-115 Term of Written Agreement: February 4, 2020 – February 28, 2023 Assistance listing number: 14.275 Criteria: Grantee is required to perform an initial determination of annual income to verify individuals served qualify as Extremely Low Income. Condition: For one out of eight participants selected to review eligibility, no documentation was available to review that the participant qualified as extremely low income. Cause: The Organization was not aware that it needed to maintain physical documentation of their review of participant eligibility until midway through the first grant year. At that time, they created an income certification form and completed it for all current participants. The participant for which income eligibility was not available had already moved out of the tiny homes and was unavailable. Effect: While the Organization is confident that the participant was eligible, we were unable to review documentation of such eligibility. Questioned Costs: Not applicable. Context: There were 27 participants in this program during the current year of which 8 were selected for eligibility review and 1 did not have documentation to review. This participant occupied a tiny home at the beginning of the period. Management implemented written income certification reviews mid-year which were completed for current and future participants. Recommendation: We recommend management continue to perform written income certifications for all future participants. Further, we suggest that the certifications include signatures of the staff completing the reviews. Views of Responsible Officials of Auditee: We agree with the above finding and plan to continue to require income certification reviews.