Stephen Begg serves as acting inspector general of HUD following an early disruption by the White House: just a few days into the second term of President Donald Trump, more than a dozen inspectors general were fired, including Rae Oliver Davis, the HUD IG appointed to the position during Trump’s first term.
Stephen BeggBegg assumed the role of acting HUD IG on Jan. 24 — the day it was reported that Davis was fired — and arrived at the hearing to offer his assessment of the work the office has accomplished, and what it still has on its outstanding agenda. He began his testimony by offering a perspective that the office’s work continues to produce “significant results” for HUD programs.
“In Fiscal Year (FY) 2024, OIG audits resulted in $86.7 million in collections and identified nearly $1 billion in funds that could be put to better use and $4.8 million in questioned costs,” Begg said. “During the same period, our investigations resulted in over $63 million in restitutions and judgments, with over $14 million total recoveries and receivables ordered to HUD programs, and in 125 administrative sanctions to remove or limit bad actors from participation in HUD programs.”
The office also tracks non-monetary benefits stemming from its oversight of the department, including “278 HUD actions that produced systemic benefits for HUD programs and its many participants and beneficiaries, and safeguarded taxpayer funds from fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement,” he said.
These have brought about 76 “guidance enhancements,” 61 “process improvements,” and 112 actions Begg said have severed to increase the effectiveness of HUD programs. Twenty-nine actions, he added, contributed to HUD implementing more accurate reporting measures.
As of March 31, the HUD OIG has 699 outstanding recommendations listed as “open” and which the office says requires action from the department.
“Of those, 246 recommendations would produce a monetary impact totaling more than $11.4 billion when addressed,” Begg said.
Twenty-four of those outstanding recommendations are listed by HUD as a priority, which is likely to have a material impact on the affairs of the agency, Begg said.
“We believe that HUD action to address these recommendations would have the greatest impact on helping the department achieve its mission and address its top management challenges,” he explained.
Among these key challenges that he expounded upon in his written testimony submitted for the record, at the top of the list are promoting health and safety in HUD-assisted housing; widening affordable housing access; effectively managing HUD grants; enhancing disaster recovery oversight; managing risks of fraud and improper payments; improving technology and cybersecurity; and increasing procurement effectiveness.
But progress in some of these areas has been made, Begg said.
“I would like to report that last year, HUD made significant progress in addressing several longstanding challenges,” he said. “Specifically, our oversight work has shown that HUD has demonstrated sustained progress in financial management by improving the accuracy of its financial reporting and compliance with financial management laws.”
In his oral testimony, Begg also described his first meeting with HUD Secretary Scott Turner, who expressed “a strong desire to strengthen the department’s anti-fraud practices and improve payment integrity, and to hold HUD program participants accountable for doing the same.”
He went on to detail that “HUD can put this commitment into action by assessing each of its programs for fraud risks, and developing a proactive approach for fraud prevention,” saying the department “should require its program participants to establish fraud risk programs in their organizations and provide guidance to them on how they should manage fraud risk.”
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