Department of Housing and Urban Development: Actions Needed to Incorporate Key Practices into Management Functions and Program Oversight
Highlights
What GAO Found
The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has struggled to resolve persistent management challenges, in part because it has not consistently incorporated requirements and key practices identified by GAO to help ensure effective management into its operations. In addition, HUD's past remedial actions were not always effective because they were not sustained. Turnover among senior leadership, shifting priorities, and resource constraints have contributed to HUD's difficulties in implementing needed changes. As a result, GAO and others continue to find deficiencies in numerous aspects of HUD's operations. Sustained focus on integrating requirements and key practices into agency management could enhance HUD's ability to more effectively accomplish its mission.
HUD has not fully met some requirements or implemented a number of key practices for its management functions, including performance planning and reporting and information technology (IT), human capital, financial, and acquisition management. In particular, some HUD plans for executing critical management functions are missing key elements, as described below. HUD also has not always maintained current and complete policies and procedures, an important component of agency governance. These challenges stem partly from a lack of controls to help ensure timely updates of plans, policies, and procedures.
Extent to Which the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Met Requirements or Was Following Key Practices for Management Functions
Why GAO Did This Study
Through its $48 billion fiscal year 2016 budget, HUD administers a wide variety of programs that help millions of households obtain safe, decent, and affordable housing and that seek to build and strengthen communities. However, GAO and HUD's Office of Inspector General have identified management deficiencies that limit the effectiveness and efficiency of HUD's operations. For example, the Inspector General cited human capital management, financial management systems, and information security among the major management challenges facing HUD in fiscal year 2016 and beyond. GAO was asked to review HUD's management practices.
This report examines HUD's efforts to (1) meet requirements and implement key practices for management functions, including financial, human capital, acquisition, and IT management; and (2) oversee and evaluate programs. GAO reviewed HUD policies and compared them with federal requirements, key practices, and internal control standards. GAO also interviewed HUD officials and industry stakeholders.
Recommendations
GAO makes eight new recommendations designed to improve HUD’s strategic and human capital planning, governance, and program oversight and evaluation. HUD concurred with our recommendations. GAO also maintains that 63 recommendations it made in prior work should be fully implemented to help improve aspects of HUD management.
Recommendations for Executive Action
| Agency Affected | Recommendation | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Department of Housing and Urban Development | In order to more fully implement key practices and meet requirements and to better institutionalize standards and practices, the Secretary of HUD should clearly link HUD's strategic goals and objectives with federal priority goals in the next annual performance plan. |
Consistent with our recommendation, HUD's Fiscal Year 2018 Annual Performance Plan contains a section on federal priority goals--known as cross-agency priority (CAP) goals--that discusses how HUD plans to contribute to the goals through internal initiatives and participation in interagency efforts. While HUD's Fiscal Year 2019 Annual Performance Plan does not contain a similar discussion, a HUD official told us in February 2018 that future plans will do so. The official said the discussion was not included in the fiscal year 2019 plan because the CAP goals were being revised.
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| Department of Housing and Urban Development | In order to more fully implement key practices and meet requirements and to better institutionalize standards and practices, the Secretary of HUD should describe the reasons that goals were not met and HUD's plans for achieving them in the next annual performance report. |
HUD took steps consistent with our recommendation that could help ensure that future annual performance reports comply with requirements for reporting on unmet goals. Specifically, in May 2020, HUD's Strategic Planning and Performance Division updated its guidance for drafting and clearing annual performance reports to emphasize requirements for reporting on performance goals (also known as key performance indicators). The guidance states that the annual performance reports should note which key performance indicator targets were not met, including (a) explanations for why they were unmet; (b) how HUD plans to achieve any delayed items; and (c) if applicable, whether the targets were determined to be impractical or infeasible (in which case HUD is to recommend follow-up actions).
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| Department of Housing and Urban Development | In order to more fully implement key practices and meet requirements and to better institutionalize standards and practices, the Secretary of HUD should establish procedures and time frames for conducting outreach with Congress and stakeholders to help ensure that the strategic plan meets statutory requirements. |
In August 2016, HUD's Office of Strategic Planning and Management (OSPM) and Office of Congressional and Intergovernmental Relations (CIR) entered into a memorandum of understanding setting forth responsibilities for consulting with Congress on the development of HUD's strategic plan and annual performance plan and report (performance documents). CIR is to organize meetings with congressional staff, convey the results to OSPM, and offer official concurrence on the final publication of the performance documents. Concurrent with the release of the President's budget, OSPM is to share the completed performance documents with CIR, which has responsibility for distributing them to Congress. A February 2017 update to the memorandum of understanding states that consultations with Congress on the strategic plan are to take place before the first full draft is submitted to the Office of Management and Budget and that HUD will consult with Congress at least once every fiscal year on the performance documents.
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| Department of Housing and Urban Development | In order to more fully implement key practices and meet requirements and to better institutionalize standards and practices, the Secretary of HUD should establish a process and schedule for regularly reviewing, revising, and updating HUD's human capital strategic plan, strategic workforce plan, and succession plan. |
Consistent with our recommendation, in January 2023, HUD's Office of the Chief Human Capital Officer added a schedule to its permanent management calendar that provides regular time frames for updating HUD's Human Capital Operating Plan, Strategic Workforce Plan, and Succession Plan. For example, the schedule calls for beginning reviews of the 5-year Strategic Workforce Plan and 5-year Succession Plan at the 3-year point to help ensure timely updates.
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| Department of Housing and Urban Development | In order to more fully implement key practices and meet requirements and to better institutionalize standards and practices, the Secretary of HUD should establish a process and schedule for reviewing and updating policies and procedures to help ensure that policies and procedures for key management functions remain current and complete. |
Consistent with our recommendation, HUD created an Accountability, Integrity, and Risk (AIR) program in 2019 within its Office of the Chief Financial Officer. The AIR program established annual review and reporting activities to (1) help HUD organizational units meet internal control, financial management, and other requirements, and (2) support the HUD Secretary in developing annual statements of assurance (SOA) about internal controls. Among other things, AIR reviews are to determine whether HUD organizational units have adequate policies and procedures to carry out their responsibilities. In February 2023, HUD issued standard operating procedures for AIR reviews and the SOA process that reflect this requirement. Specifically, the procedures reference a compliance matrix the AIR program team uses to validate policies and procedures and to identify any gaps in process documentation.
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| Department of Housing and Urban Development | In order to more fully implement key practices and meet requirements and to better institutionalize standards and practices, the Secretary of HUD should formalize lines of communication between the Chief Information Officer and the agency head, consistent with OMB guidance and internal control standards. |
On August 14, 2018, the Secretary of HUD issued a memorandum to principal staff implementing changes consistent with Executive Order 13833, "Enhancing the Effectiveness of Agency Chief Information Officers," issued on May 15, 2018. The memorandum states that HUD's Chief Information Officer now reports directly to the Secretary. It further states that the reporting relationship is consistent with Executive Order requirements that the CIO have direct access to the agency head regarding all programs that include information technology, and that the CIO serve as the primary strategic advisor to the agency head concerning the use of information technology.
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| Department of Housing and Urban Development | In order to more fully implement key practices and meet requirements and to better institutionalize standards and practices, the Secretary of HUD should designate entities within the program offices or an entity with agency-wide responsibilities for overseeing fraud risk management activities. |
On March 16, 2017, HUD's Acting Deputy Secretary designated the Office of Strategic Planning and Management (OSPM) as the entity with agency-wide responsibilities for overseeing fraud risk activities. She also formally appointed the Chief Risk Officer within OSPM as the departmental lead for fraud risk management. She instructed the Chief Risk Officer to develop an implementation plan for managing fraud risk as part of the department's Enterprise Risk Management program. HUD's goal is to produce a draft plan for comment by June 2017.
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| Department of Housing and Urban Development | In order to more fully implement key practices and meet requirements and to better institutionalize standards and practices, the Secretary of HUD should develop written policies for conducting program evaluations. |
In December 2016, HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research (PD&R) published a Program Evaluation Policy in the Federal Register. The Program Evaluation Policy articulates the core principles and practices that PD&R uses to help ensure high-quality and consistent evaluation results. These principles and practices include rigor, relevance, transparency, and independence. The Program Evaluation Policy applies to all PD&R-sponsored evaluations and economic analyses of regulations, as well as to the selection of projects, contractors, and PD&R staff involved in evaluations.
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