Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson has gotten down to business.
The results of a new, independent audit of the last years of President Barack Obama’s term — 2015 and 2016 — show an incredible mismanagement of funds and a wealth of errors.
Here’s what Audit Report 2017-FO-0005, released Wednesday, notes:
“The total amounts of errors corrected in HUD’s notes and consolidated financial statements were $516.4 billion and $3.4 billion, respectively. There were several other unresolved audit matters, which restricted our ability to obtain sufficient, appropriate evidence to express an opinion.”
That is a lot of waste, fraud, and abuse.
The audit continues, noting exactly why they made a “check-up” of the department:
“Our
objective was to express an opinion on the fairness of HUD’s
consolidated financial statements in accordance with U.S.
generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) applicable to the
Federal Government. This report presents our reissued independent
auditor’s report on HUD’s fiscal years 2016 and 2015 (restated)
consolidated financial statements, including an update to our
report on HUD’s internal controls.”
The official report describes why the audit took place:
In accordance with the Chief Financial Officers Act of 1990, as amended, we are required to annually audit the consolidated financial statements of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). HUD reissued its fiscal years 2016 and 2015 (restated) consolidated financial statements due to pervasive material errors that we identified. Our objective was to express an opinion on the fairness of HUD’s consolidated financial statements in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) applicable to the Federal Government. This report presents our reissued independent auditor’s report on HUD’s fiscal years 2016 and 2015 (restated) consolidated financial statements, including an update to our report on HUD’s internal controls.
It also described a recommended course of action to correct the situation:
In accordance with the Chief Financial Officers Act of 1990, as amended, we are required to annually audit the consolidated financial statements of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). HUD reissued its fiscal years 2016 and 2015 (restated) consolidated financial statements due to pervasive material errors that we identified. Our objective was to express an opinion on the fairness of HUD’s consolidated financial statements in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) applicable to the Federal Government. This report presents our reissued independent auditor’s report on HUD’s fiscal years 2016 and 2015 (restated) consolidated financial statements, including an update to our report on HUD’s internal controls.
Here is the “Background and Objective” from the official audit report:
We
are required by the Chief Financial Officers Act of 1990, as
amended by the Government Management Reform Act of 1994 and
implemented by Office of Management and Budget
(OMB)
Bulletin 15-02, Audit Requirements for Federal Financial
Statements, to audit the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban
Development’s (HUD) principal financial statements or select an
independent auditor to do so. The objective of our audit was to
express an opinion on the fair presentation of these principal
financial statements. In planning our audit of HUD’s principal
financial statements, we considered internal controls over
financial reporting and tested compliance with selected
provisions of applicable laws, regulations, and government
policies that may materially affect the consolidated principal
financial statements. Providing an opinion on internal controls
or compliance with selected provisions of laws, regulations, and
government policies was not an objective, and, accordingly, we
do not express such an opinion.