Housing and Urban Development's Efforts To Improve Its Accounting System for Mortgage Insurance Premiums

Gao ID: FGMSD-80-27 March 19, 1980

GAO reviewed the action taken by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to improve its system for billing and collecting mortgage insurance premiums. The review concentrated on the effectiveness of actions taken to reduce the amount of delinquent premiums.

HUD has not been sufficiently aggressive in collecting the millions of dollars in premiums that mortgage institutions owe. Controls over the delinquent premiums were expected to be drastically improved once a new automated system was implemented in September 1979. However, design changes have caused delays and the system is not scheduled for implementation until 1982. Because of this, HUD has started making long-needed improvements to its existing accounting system. Procedures currently used are inconsistent with those followed in the private sector and could keep some mortgagees from knowing about delinquencies for years. HUD also had difficulty collecting the application fees that homeowners actually paid in advance from the mortgagees. This problem could be mitigated by requiring the mortgagee to pay the fees when the application is accepted rather than waiting until related documents are processed through the system.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

Director: John F. Simonette Team: General Accounting Office: Financial and General Management Studies Division Phone: (202) 634-5217


The Justia Government Accountability Office site republishes public reports retrieved from the U.S. GAO These reports should not be considered official, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Justia.