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GHURA gets clean financial audit but some costs questioned | News
Although the Guam Housing and Urban Renewal Authority received a clean audit last fiscal year, auditors identified material weaknesses in internal compliance costs across three major federal programs, resulting in $51,000 in questionable costs.
The audit, released Wednesday by the Office of Public Accountabilityfound that the agency ended the year with a net position of $18.1 million, a decrease of $2.8 million from the previous year.
GHURA manages 750 public housing units, of which 685 were occupied and 34 were undergoing modernization. In addition, the agency administers the federal Section 8 voucher program, which provides rental assistance to low-income families.
Financial statements included in the audit noted that housing assistance payments, which made up 68.82 percent of expenses, increased 13.37 percent from the prior year. The increase was attributed to higher rents for Section 8 properties.
Auditors examined key federal programs administered by GHURA and found four material weaknesses:
- Amounts reported in Community Development Block Grant summary reports do not agree with the underlying accounting records, and $3.8 million in subawards were not reported in the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act Subaward Reporting System. This was a repeat finding from FY 2022.
- Five of the 14 projects tested in the Continuum of Care Program have poor matches, resulting in $51,000 in questionable costs.
- In housing voucher programs, unaudited amounts reported in the Financial Assessment Subsystem did not match the underlying accounting records, with discrepancies ranging from $40,000 to $8.9 million.
- Also in housing voucher programs, beginning equity balances did not match the ending balances audited in the 2022 fiscal report. Variances ranged from $34,000 to $4.2 million.