[rdcbn]

HUD has an operating budget of 50 billion per year, but a lot more money goes through the agency in the form of government backed home loans it administers

It is totally believable that HUD cant account for 520 billion from the Subprime lending under its wing

Look at the source of the report

[Garth Tater]

HUD has an operating budget of 50 billion per year, but a lot more money goes through the agency in the form of government backed home loans it administers

They are also counting as missing funds transactions that could not be properly verified during an audit. Many of these are intra-departmental transactions that add up as funds are moved within the agency from department to department, so every dollar that moves thru the agency can be counted as missing several or even many times. Still each unaccounted for transaction is an opportunity for theft or misspending to occur and in a sane world would never have been allowed to happen let alone be the standard operating procedure.

Note: the Defense Department's $2+ trillion dollars of missing funds was also counted this way. Makes for a better story - not that the inadequate accounting systems and procedures the fedgov uses shouldn't be a huge story in and of itself.