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HUD Housing Portfolios: HUD Has Strengthened Physical Inspections but Needs to Resolve Concerns About Their Reliability

RCED-00-168 Published: Jul 25, 2000. Publicly Released: Aug 24, 2000.
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Highlights

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Real Estate Assessment Center's (REAC) new physical inspection system for the Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) public and multifamily housing properties, focusing on whether: (1) REAC's inspection system represents an improvement over HUD's prior inspection systems; and (2) REAC's inspections are reliable.

Recommendations

Recommendations for Executive Action

Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Housing and Urban Development The Secretary of Housing and Urban Development should direct the Director, REAC, to revise REAC's April 2000 quality assurance plan as necessary to ensure that the quality assurance activities it contains will provide REAC with the information it needs to evaluate four key areas: (1) inspection contractors' compliance with provisions in their contracts and quality control programs; (2) inspectors' performance in applying REAC's inspection protocol; (3) the accuracy of the inspections and resulting scores; and (4) the performance of the physical inspection program as indicated by the precision and replicability of the inspection protocol. The revisions should include adding information to the plan that describes: (1) how the information obtained through various quality assurance procedures will be used to assess REAC's performance in meeting each of the plan's objectives; (2) how REAC's quality assurance activities relate to activities performed by the inspection contractors as part of their quality control programs; and (3) what records REAC should maintain to document its actions when poorly performing inspectors are identified during collaborative and follow-up reviews. In addition, REAC should reevaluate whether the plan contains appropriate criteria for quality assurance personnel to use in assessing each of the activities covered by the plan.
Closed – Implemented
HUD has taken actions in response to GAO's recommendations that have improved REAC's quality assurance plan. For example, REAC has revised the plan so that it contains additional information on how the results of its quality assurance reviews will be used to evaluate the accuracy of inspections, assess inspector performance, and evaluate the REAC physical inspection protocol. The plan also more clearly describes how REAC will review contractor quality assurance activities so that it can take them into account when planning its own reviews. REAC's Inspector Tracking System also now documents problems that REAC identifies with inspector performance as part of its quality assurance activities and the corrective actions taken. This addresses our concerns regarding REAC documentation of actions taken when poorly performing inspectors are identified during collaborative and follow-up reviews.
Department of Housing and Urban Development To provide Congress with timely information on REAC's progress in addressing concerns about the reliability of physical inspections, HUD should periodically issue reports describing the quality assurance activities that it has performed and the results of these activities.
Closed – Implemented
REAC plans to conduct formal semi-annual reviews of its quality assurance program. The first of these reviews covered the period July 1, 2000, through December 31, 2000. In an effort to synchronize the review periods with REAC's fiscal year, future reviews will cover the period from October 1 to March 30 and April 1 to September 30. Reports on the reviews are to be completed within 60 days of the end of the reporting period.

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Topics

Building codesBuilding inspectionData integrityHousing programsPublic housingQuality assuranceQuality controlRental housingMultifamily housingHousing