Finding Text
2022 ? 002 Federal Agency: Department of Housing and Urban Development Federal Program Name: Public and Indian Housing Assistance Listing Number: 14.850 Federal Award Identification Number and Year: AZ023 and 2022 Award Period: April 1, 2021 ? March 31, 2022 Type of Finding: ? Significant Deficiency in Internal Control over Compliance ? Other Matters Criteria or specific requirement: A current Declaration of Trust/Declaration of Restrictive Covenants, in a form acceptable to HUD, must be recorded against all public housing property owned by public housing authorities (or private entities for public housing developed under 24 CFR Part 905, Subpart F) that has been acquired, developed, maintained, or assisted with funds from the US Housing Act of 1937. In addition, CFR Part 200 Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Award requires compliance with the provisions of special provision. The Authority should have internal controls designed to ensure compliance with those provisions. Condition: During our testing, we noted the Authority did not have adequate internal controls designed to ensure declaration of trust/declaration of restrictive covenants were recorded against the Authority?s properties. The Authority was either unable to locate the declaration of trust or noted that the declaration of trust was on the wrong form for the properties. Questioned costs: None Context: During our testing, it was noted that the Authority did not retain or submit the required declaration of trust in a form acceptable to HUD for 86 of the 90 projects. A declaration of trust was able to be located for project numbers AZ20P023010, AZ023003, AZ16P023004, AZ20P023904Z. Cause: The Authority was aware of the requirement and was notified by HUD. However, subsequent actions were not taken to ensure the Authority filed the required forms. Effect: The lack of internal controls over the compliance requirements resulted in the Authority?s noncompliance over specific requirement mentioned above. Recommendation: We recommend the Authority design and implement controls to declaration of trust were prepared and recorded against all public housing properties owned by the Authority. Views of responsible officials: There is no disagreement with the audit finding.