Reports

The Office of the Special Inspector General for Pandemic Recovery is assessing the Department of the Treasury's Direct Loan Program, which provided approximately $2.7 billion through 35 loans to passenger air carriers and related businesses, cargo air carriers, and businesses critical to maintaining national security. The objectives of the audit are to 1) determine if the processes to approve loans followed requirements under Section 4003(b) of the CARES Act and other appropriate regulations and guidance and 2) evaluate Treasury’s Direct Loan Program loan portfolio management process and determine whether it follows best practices established by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency or other appropriate authority. As part of this effort, SIGPR is partnering with the Department of Defense OIG in reviewing the loans that were issued in the interest of national security. 
 

The OIG is conducting a survey of inmates in BOP-managed federal prisons regarding BOP's COVID-19 pandemic response.

HUD OIG is conducting a limited review of HUD's administration of supplemental operating funds under the CARES Act. The CARES Act authorized an additional $685 million in public housing operating funds to prevent, prepare for, and respond to COVID-19.  The review objective is to assess Public Housing Agencies' (PHA) experiences and challenges and HUD's efforts in providing guidance related to the administration of supplemental operating funds under the CARES Act.

The Office of the Inspector General (OIG) has initiated a review of the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ (BOP) use of home confinement as a tool to mitigate the effect of the Novel Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) pandemic on the federal prison population.  The review will assess the BOP’s process for implementing the use of home confinement as authorized under the CARES Act, the process for its consideration of the eligibility criteria outlined in the Attorney General’s March 26 and April 3, 2020 memoranda, and the process by which BOP headquarters evaluated wardens’ recommendations that inmates who did not meet the Attorney General’s criteria be placed in home confinement.  The review will also select particular cases for examination to determine whether there were irregularities in the BOP’s processes.  If circumstances warrant, the OIG will consider including other issues that may arise during the course of the review.  The OIG is undertaking this review in response to requests from Members of Congress, and issues the OIG identified during the series of remote inspections it has conducted regarding the BOP’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The purpose of this memorandum is to notify you that we are researching prior audits of HUD’s Single Family Default Monitoring System to provide HUD information regarding lessons learned and risks identified in these prior audits that HUD should act on now to ensure program integrity and mitigate the risk of financial loss for COVID-19 related forbearance assistance and foreclosure moratorium related to single family loans.

The purpose of this memorandum is to notify you that we are researching prior audits of HUD’s partial claims loss mitigation option to provide HUD information regarding lessons learned and risks identified in these prior audits that HUD should act on now to ensure program integrity and mitigate the risk of financial loss for COVID-19 related partial claims.

HUD OIG is researching Public and Indian Housing and Multifamily use of vacant units during previously Presidentially Declared Disasters and the COVID-19 declared Disaster, as well as PIH and Multifamily’s ability to place a waitlist preference for the homeless and how many homeless individuals had a 50058 or 50059 new move-in during the COVID pandemic.  Since the introduction of the CARES act, there has been an emphasis to review how HUD has reacted to the COVID-19 disaster.  HUD allocated $1 billion to keep America's homeless population safe.  The purpose of this research is to issue memorandums for both PIH and Multifamily addressing the research topics.

HUD OIG is  researching prior audits of HUD’s partial claims loss mitigation option.  On July 8, 2020, FHA issued Mortgagee Letter 2020-22 informing mortgagees the full suite of loss mitigations available to single family borrowers affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.  The purpose of this research is to provide HUD information regarding lessons learned and risks identified in these prior audits that HUD should act on now to ensure program integrity and mitigate the risk of financial loss for COVID-19 related partial claims.

HUD OIG is performing research to help HUD's Community Development Block Grant Coronavirus pandemic (CDBG-CV) grantees be aware of known risks and lessons learned from audits and evaluations of the Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery Program grants (CDBG-DR).  The purpose of our research is to issue a report that is intended to assist HUD’s Office of Community Planning and Development (CPD) by developing lessons learned from past reviews and common risk areas to help its CDBG-CV grantees prevent, prepare for, and respond to the coronavirus pandemic.

The OIG is conducting a capstone review analyzing the findings of 15 published remote inspection reports of 16 facilities housing BOP inmates during the 2019 Novel Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) pandemic and remaining challenges for the BOP during the pandemic and beyond.  These inspections assessed whether BOP-managed institutions, contract institutions, and contract Residential Reentry Centers complied with available guidance and best practices regarding preventing, managing, and containing potential COVID-19 outbreaks in correctional and residential reentry settings, and highlighted particular challenges faced by specific institutions.  In addition to the three surveys the OIG conducted in 2020 regarding BOP’s COVID-19 pandemic response, the OIG is also conducting two additional surveys in 2021 – a second survey of BOP federal prison staff and a new survey of inmates.