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By: FEDweek StaffAn IG report at the Federal Housing Finance Agency serves as a reminder that cash payments such as recruitment and retention incentives need to be fully documented.
Auditors said that over 2019-2020 the large majority of such payments met government-wide and agency-specific rules but that: for five monetary awards, the recommending officials did not obtain the required concurrence from the supervisors of record and two also lacked the required approval by the second-level supervisor; for three recruitment bonuses paid to non-executive hires for mission-critical positions, the supporting documentation did not cite that the positions were recruitment challenges; and that for two retention allowances, the risk of the employee leaving for other employment or retirement otherwise was not documented.
Further, the agency lacks a written policy governing “excellence awards,” which averaged about $1,000 each during that time.
It added that separately, two recent internal audits by agency management disclosed issues with awards programs including lack of specificity regarding who can recommend such awards and incomplete justification for some. However, the IG found “no evidence” that the recommendations of those audits had been implemented.
The IG said management agreed with its recommendations to address the issues the report raised.
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