Posted on 05/03/2017 7:45:18 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Q: Did Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson find over $500 billion in accounting errors while auditing HUD’s financial statements?
A: No. The errors were discovered and published by HUD’s independent inspector general before Carson became secretary.
Is it true that Dr. Ben Carson has found a half trillion dollar error from the Obama administration since he has taken office?
Readers have repeatedly asked us if Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Dr. Ben Carson initiated an audit of HUD’s financial statements and found more than $500 billion in accounting errors made by the Obama administration.
That may be because an article published April 6 by the conservative Daily Wire, and republished or cited by other websites, wrongly credited Carson with uncovering the accounting mistakes.
Actually, the errors were discovered during an annual audit started in 2016 by HUD’s Office of the Inspector General, which has been headed by David A. Montoya since December 2011.
According to its website, the OIG, which has a separate budget from HUD, works independently from the department in an effort to “promote efficiency and effectiveness in programs and operations; detect and deter fraud and abuse; investigate allegations of misconduct by HUD employees; and review and make recommendations regarding existing and proposed legislation and regulations affecting HUD.”
President Donald Trump nominated Carson, a former neurosurgeon and Republican presidential candidate, to serve as HUD secretary in December, but the Senate did not confirm Carson to the post until March 2 — one day after the OIG published an updated report providing the total value of the errors.
“HUD reissued its fiscal years 2016 and 2015 (restated) consolidated financial statements due to pervasive material errors that we identified,” the report said.
“The total amounts of errors corrected in HUD’s notes and consolidated financial statements were $516.4 billion and $3.4 billion, respectively.”
But, as the report noted, the OIG first notified HUD officials last year of issues it found during a routine review required by federal law. That was long before Carson became secretary.
HUD OIG, March 1: On November 15, 2016, we issued an independent auditor’s report stating that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) was unable to provide final fiscal years 2016 and 2015 consolidated financial statements and accompanying notes in a timeframe that would allow us to obtain sufficient, appropriate evidence to determine whether they were free from material misstatement. We also reported on the delays encountered in the material weakness, Weak Internal Controls Over Financial Reporting Led to Errors and Delays in the Preparation of Financial Statements and Notes. …
Despite having to disclaim on HUD’s fiscal years 2016 and 2015 financial statements and notes, we continued our review of the financial statements. Our review identified material errors and misstatements in the financial statements and notes. The results of that review are contained in this report (see Material Weaknesses section) and update the material weakness, Weak Internal Controls Over Financial Reporting Led to Errors and Delays in the Preparation of Financial Statements and Notes, reported in Office of Inspector General (OIG) audit reports 2017-FO-0003 and 2017-FO-0004.
We notified HUD management in early December 2016 and requested that it perform its own review. HUD concluded its review and agreed with us that the pervasiveness and scope of the errors contained in the financial statements justified the need to reissue the statements to correct the errors. HUD withdrew its AFR [agency financial report], and on December 28, 2016, HUD’s Acting Chief Financial Officer notified the Inspector General that HUD had requested from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) an extension for submitting its AFR from November 15, 2016, to March 1, 2017.
For example, the OIG said at least $119 billion in errors were due to incorrect rounding.
“We found several instances in which rounding was performed to the nearest billion and hundred billion, while OMB Circular A-136 requires the highest level of rounding to be at the nearest million,” the report said.
In conclusion, the report said “HUD was able to make revisions to correct the errors identified and make other corrections that were later identified by OCFO,” or the Office of the Chief Financial Officer. “OCFO reissued its financial statements, which included corrections totaling $516.4 billion to its notes and $3.4 billion to its financial statements.”
The report refers to the total as an “absolute value.” That’s because some of the errors were positive figures and others were negative. In all, there were nearly $520 billion in changes.
However, in a Feb. 24 memo from Deputy Chief Financial Officer Courtney Timberlake, HUD said, “Overall, the combined adjustments to the consolidated financial statements resulted in a net adjustment of $3 million, but no change in HUD’s financial position or impact on our programs.”
The OIG didn’t dispute HUD’s response, but called it an attempt by the department to play down “the severity of the condition and impact of the errors identified.” The report said: “While the errors identified may not have changed HUD’s financial position, as HUD states at the bottom of its financial statements, ‘The accompanying notes are an integral part of these statements.’ These notes contained errors of $516.4 billion.”
The bottom line: the OIG, not Carson, was responsible for the audit that led to the correction of over $500 billion in bookkeeping errors by HUD during the Obama administration. Carson wasn’t in office when OIG initiated the audit and the secretary has no authority over the independent IG office.
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. “HUD’s Fiscal Years 2016 and 2015 (Restated) Consolidated Financial Statements Audit (Reissued).” Audit Report Number: 2017-FO-0005. 1 Mar 2017.
Curl, Joseph. “Ben Carson Finds $500 Billion (Billion!) In Errors During Audit Of Obama HUD.” DailyWire.com. 6 Apr 2017.
Carter. “MSM SILENT: Ben Carson Finds $500 BILLION in Fraud-Mismanagement in HUD Audit.” Gatewaypundit.com. 6 Apr 2017.
Domonoske, Camila. “Ben Carson Confirmed As Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.” NPR. 2 Mar 2017.
Wright, David. “Trump taps Ben Carson for HUD secretary.” CNNPolitics.com. 5 Dec 2016.
“For example, the OIG said at least $119 billion in errors were due to incorrect rounding.
“We found several instances in which rounding was performed to the nearest billion and hundred billion, while OMB Circular A-136 requires the highest level of rounding to be at the nearest million,” the report said.”
Don’t you just hate it when there’s a “rounding error” that S/B in the millions, but is mistakenly made in the billions! Someone should have OMB Circular A-136 rolled up and stuffed up his a$$! From all the “errors and misspending” I’ve read about recently, we could probably drop the national debt by a trillion just by acting like a business where our finances are concerned.
I’m wondering if the errors are Fake News. They probably weren’t errors, but more like “on purposes.”
(HAT TIP HOLLYB) The audit is lengthy. Here’s a couple of things I came across:
****Errors in financial statement note disclosures. We found that 19 of 31 financial statement notes (61 percent) contained errors with an approximate absolute value totaling $278.5 billion. Of the $278.5 billion in errors, $159.4 billion in errors was due primarily to (1) incorrect data entry, (2) omission of restated balances, or (3) incorrect data provided by HUD’s component entities (FHA and Ginnie Mae). The remaining $119.1 billion in errors was due to inappropriate rounding adjustments. We found several instances in which rounding was performed to the nearest billion and hundred billion,
1. HUD Assets and Liabilities Were Misstated and Not Adequately Supported HUD did not properly account for, have internal controls over, or have adequate support for all of its assets and liabilities. Specifically,
(1) CPD did not validate its accrued grant liabilities estimates;
(2) HUD’s accounting for its cash management process did not include the recognition of receivables and payables when incurred and understated its prepayment balance; (3) HUD did not recognize a prepayment for funds advanced to its IHBG grantees that were used for investment;
(4) EHLP could not be audited;
(5) balances related to HUD’s loan guarantee programs were not reliable; and,
(6) HUD did not properly account for its property, plant, and equipment.
These problems occurred because of continued weaknesses in HUD’s internal controls and a lack of communication between OCFO and the program offices. As a result, several financial statement line items were misstated or could not be audited as of September 30, 2016. Specifically, (1) CPD’s accrued grant liabilities estimates could not be audited; (2) HUD’s PIH prepayments and accounts receivable balances contained errors with an absolute value of approximately $476.2 million and $201.2 million, respectively, and accounts payable were understated by an unknown amount; (3) HUD’s expenses on its statement of net costs were overstated by $293.2 million; (4) loans receivable balances for EHLP could not be audited and were potentially misstated; (5) balances related to HUD’s loan guarantee programs were misstated by unknown amounts; and (6) HUD’s $297 million balance for property, plant, and equipment was not supported.
2....some contractors had inappropriate access to sensitive budget and general ledger financial transactions. Further, inaccurate security documentation could lead to inappropriate decisions.
3. HUD Continued To Not Comply With the HOME Investment Partnership Act
4. HUD Did Not Comply With Treasury Financial Manual’s Rules on Cash Management or 2 CFR Part 200
5. HUD Did Not Comply With the Improper Payments Elimination and Recovery Act of 2010
6. Ginnie Mae Did Not Comply With the Debt Collection Improvement Act of 1996
7. HUD Assets and Liabilities Were Misstated and Not Adequately Supported
Much more at link: https://www.hudoig.gov/sites/default/files/documents/2017-FO-0005.pdf
cont
Dr. Carson made it Public. Obviously the Obama Administration chose to keep it a secret.
You don’t find a half Trillion Dollar Accounting error one week after walking through the door and taking over the place.
RE: Who is the Fact Checker?
The writer of this piece is D’Angelo Gore ( Doesn’t sound like a familiar name someone would give to a child. And the “Gore” makes me want to ask whether the person is related to Al himself ). Unfrotunately, that’s the most we know of this “Fact Checker”.
If we had a complete Justice Department with new conservative lawyers (which we don’t yet have), there would be some people being tried for their criminal acts at HUH.
RE: The bottom line: the OIG, not Carson, was responsible for the audit that led to the correction of over $500 billion in bookkeeping errors by HUD during the Obama administration. Carson wasn’t in office when OIG initiated the audit and the secretary has no authority over the independent IG office.
__________________________
OK, the important question is STILL this — WHY DID THE PUBLIC ONLY KNOW ABOUT THIS NOW? Was it made public when it was discovered?
And here’s the next question -— Are there any consequences to the person or persons who made this error? Or are we simply going to just shrug and let him or her keep his position?
We keep asking the wrong questions.
Clinton stooge Janet Napolitano who is president of the University of California misplaced $175 million in secret reserves when the university’s governing board voted to raise tuition earlier this year. She said oops and keeps her job.
http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article148194649.html
She is also in charge of the Berkeley campus where terror rains.
I would be as leery of “Fact Checkers” as I am of Hillary Clinton. Or obama.
Regardless of when the report was issued, that amount of error cannot stand. What corrective action has been forthcoming? What employees are responsible - names, please? How can we be assured it never happens again? Obama screw-ups are all over the place but I see no heads roll, no corrective action - no details. Call a spade a spade, and don’t wait a year to get the job done.
Yes he did, in that HE FOUND THEY HAD THIS AUDIT and reported it publicly.
Did anyone hear about it before Dr. Carson told everyone?
RE: Yes he did, in that HE FOUND THEY HAD THIS AUDIT and reported it publicly.
So, is this an AUDIT to find out about an existing or past AUDITs which were not made public before?
If so, it meets the definition of AUDIT: “To conduct an official financial examination of (an individual’s or organization’s accounts).”
Because the press chose not to make a big deal of it. Past OIG reports and audits aren't secret, just buried in a mountain of public information.
-- Are there any consequences to the person or persons who made this error? --
It's not one error, it is thousands of errors, made by thousands of people. Some of it is fraud, probably 20% of that is caught.
The mind-raping media keeps inventing new ways to lie.
So, in order to distract from the fact that the Obama administration was criminally incompetent, they zero in on some minor error in an obscure news report. Then whenever anyone brings up this fact, they switch the subject to the “debunked” error.
Same thing they did when Planned Parenthood got caught red handed selling baby body parts. They kept misreporting that the issue is about “profit” (Planned Parenthood is “non-profit” even if its leader make millions), and about “highly-edited” videos. ALL news videos are highly-edited, if that means anything. Plus, the source footage was released. So, after reporting these lies over and over, any time the baby killers are mentioned, they just invoke their Goebbel-style meme.
Same thing with Jeff Sessions on Russia. Sessions stated plainly that he would recuse himself from investigations into the campaign of which he was a part. He did NOT say he would recuse himself from all investigations pertaining to Russia. But the media has said over, and over, and over, that he said so.
Liars. Murderers. Thieves. Tyrants. And this will not be resolved without lots of them dying.
RE: Some of it is fraud, probably 20% of that is caught.
Well, if so, we ought to have an AUDIT ( there’s that word again ) of WHO or HOW MANY PEOPLE perpetrated the fraud and FIRE THEM ( and I’m being very lenient here, they ought to be tried and jailed if found guilty ).
And your point is?
Fraud cases highlighted in the HUD's Office of Inspector - January 14, 2011
HUD Scandals - June 1, 2009
Former HUD-OIG Special Agent in Charge Convicted of Making False Statements - 2015
I'm sure there are exceptional cases where the wrongdoer is too big or too small to bother with. My point of view is that HUD should be disbanded. Too much money in one place, bureaucratic, recipe for successful fraud.
RE: And your point is?
Please read the rest of my posts on this thread. My point is adequately presented.
Put it in your first post
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