Manufactured Housing in New Mexico

GAO reviewed the Farmers Home Administration's (FmHA) manufactured housing program operated by one of its approved dealer-contractors in New Mexico, focusing on FmHA efforts to: (1) resolve homeowner complaints against the dealer-contractor; and (2) remove the dealer-contractor from future participation in government programs. GAO determined that: (1) the dealer-contractor's manufacturer inspected the claimed defects at six of the ten homes with alleged defects and agreed to correct the defects at its own expense; (2) the manufacturer performed repair work on two of the remaining four homes prior to the inspection, and FmHA considered the defects resolved; (3) although in July 1989, FmHA initiated debarment proceedings against the dealer-contractor, FmHA subsequently decided not to pursue debarment, since the contractor's company was defunct and its president was deceased; (4) in August 1991, FmHA initiated debarment proceedings against the dealer-contractor's surviving principal partners and its salesman; and (5) in December 1991, the salesman's debarment was overturned because FmHA failed to demonstrate, by the applicable standard of evidence, that the asserted grounds for debarment existed.