Recommendation: The Director of FinCEN should develop and implement written policies and procedures to help promote the greater use of BSA reports by law enforcement agencies that do not have direct access to the BSA database. Such policies and procedures could include outreach strategies and educational or training materials. (Recommendation 1)

Agency: Department of the Treasury: Financial Crimes Enforcement Network
Status: Open

Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Recommendation: The HUD Assistant Secretary for the Office of Public and Indian Housing should complete its updates of the Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) Program Guidebook and Public Housing Occupancy Guidebook to reflect current guidance on criminal history policies for its public housing and HCV programs. (Recommendation 1)

Agency: Department of Housing and Urban Development: Office of Public and Indian Housing
Status: Open

Comments: HUD is in the process of revising both guidebooks. HUD officials stated that the updated guidebooks will include revisions to reflect HUD's current criminal history policies. The revised guidebooks are expected to be completed no later than December 2019.

Recommendation: The HUD Assistant Secretary for the Office of Public and Indian Housing should review HUD's Compliance Monitoring Checklist to determine if questions should be added to address additional federal criminal history requirements and revise checklist instructions to direct HUD staff to obtain information on PHAs' implementation of these requirements during compliance reviews. (Recommendation 2)

Agency: Department of Housing and Urban Development: Office of Public and Indian Housing
Status: Open

Comments: HUD Office of Public and Indian Housing staff, including Regional Directors, reviewed the checklist and determined that no additional questions should be added as they believe the checklist currently addresses federal criminal history requirements. Therefore, they also maintain that the related checklist instructions also do no require revision.

Recommendation: The HUD Assistant Inspector General for the Office of Investigation should collect and assess more comprehensive information on regional efforts to implement the activities listed in the 2018 Standard Operating Procedure. (Recommendation 3)

Agency: Department of Housing and Urban Development: Office of the Inspector General: Office of Investigation
Status: Open

Comments: HUD OIG did not agree with this recommendation, stating that it was a management function not required in statute or regulation and would be unduly burdensome. We maintain the recommendation is valid. According to HUD OIG's standard operating procedures, they will be responsible for collecting and reporting statistics for some regional office activities. As discussed in this report, we believe the HUD OIG could obtain more comprehensive information on additional required regional activities using existing resources.

Recommendation: The HUD Assistant Inspector General for the Office of Investigation should, in collaboration with the FBI, determine what information on fugitive apprehensions and any estimated program savings that occur as the result of the Fugitive Felon Initiative would be most useful and consistently share such information with the FBI. (Recommendation 4)

Agency: Department of Housing and Urban Development: Office of the Inspector General: Office of Investigation
Status: Open

Comments: HUD OIG did not agree with this recommendation, stating that its ability to determine apprehensions and program savings is limited. However, the MOU between the HUD OIG and the FBI (as of the issuance of the report) states that the HUD OIG is to share this information with the FBI. We believe our recommendation provides sufficient flexibility for the HUD OIG and the FBI to determine what information on results would be feasible to collect, and maintain that such collaboration could better position the HUD OIG and the FBI to enhance their ability to identify any areas for improvement and evaluate the effectiveness of the initiative.

Recommendation: The HUD Assistant Inspector General for the Office of Investigation should, in collaboration with the FBI, update the Fugitive Felon Initiative memorandum of understanding (MOU) to reflect the agencies' current activities and responsibilities. (Recommendation 5)

Agency: Department of Housing and Urban Development: Office of the Inspector General: Office of Investigation
Status: Open

Comments: HUD OIG agreed with this recommendation and would be taking steps to address it.

Recommendation: The Director of the FBI should, in collaboration with the HUD OIG, determine what information on fugitive apprehensions that occur as the result of the Fugitive Felon Initiative would be most useful and consistently share such information with the HUD OIG. (Recommendation 6)

Agency: Department of Justice: Federal Bureau of Investigation
Status: Open

Comments: The Department of Justice agreed with this recommendation and stated that it will continually provide apprehension statistics on a fiscal year basis. The department will also collaborate with the HUD OIG to provide any additional assistance necessary for quality information sharing.

Recommendation: The Director of the FBI should, in collaboration with the HUD OIG, update the Fugitive Felon Initiative MOU to reflect the agencies' current activities and responsibilities. (Recommendation 7)

Agency: Department of Justice: Federal Bureau of Investigation
Status: Open

Comments: The Department of Justice agreed with this recommendation and will take action to update the MOU, in collaboration with the HUD OIG.

Recommendation: To help ensure that agencies' policies and oversight are fully consistent with The Attorney General's Guidelines Regarding the Use of Confidential Informants, the Assistant Secretary of ICE and the Commandant of USCG should update their respective agencies' informant policies and corresponding monitoring processes to explicitly address the Guidelines' provisions on oversight of informants' illegal activities.

Agency: Department of Homeland Security: United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement
Status: Open

Comments: In December 2016, ICE issued a memo regarding changes to its policies for the registration and suitability of confidential informants. The memo included updated forms to oversee those aspects of confidential informant oversight. In April 2017, ICE officials informed GAO that the agency planned for a working group to update the Informants Handbook and the Undercover Operations Handbook. As of October 2018, ICE reported that officials had made draft updates to the handbooks and that these updates were undergoing review. In June 2019, ICE reported that the updates were expected to be finalized in July 2019. The handbook updates had not been finalized as of February 2020, and, at that time, ICE officials reported that the handbooks were undergoing additional updates related to a separate effort unrelated to GAO's recommendation. As of June 2020, ICE officials did not have an estimated completion date for finalizing revisions to the handbooks. When the updated handbooks are available for GAO's review, we will assess the extent to which they address our recommendation.