Federal Manager's Daily Report

HUD “has struggled to resolve persistent management challenges,” in part because it has not consistently incorporated requirements and needed key practices identified by outside reviews, GAO has said.

GAO found that HUD’s efforts to fix issues “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.”

In particular, it said, HUD has not fully addressed problem areas including performance planning and reporting and IT, human capital, financial, and acquisition management.

“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,” it said, noting that the department’s IG has raised similar concerns.

While HUD concurred with eight new recommendations, GAO added that numerous prior recommendations that received the same response still have not been fully implemented.