HUD launches another audit of PHA

Auditors for the federal housing agency have launched another review of the Philadelphia Housing Authority, this time looking at possible conflicts of interest between PHA officials and contractors doing renovations of public housing.

The audit is the third review of PHA this year by the Inspector General's Office of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The office recently issued a critical report on PHA's spending on outside legal fees and has finished, but not yet released, an audit of PHA's stand-alone houses, which are scattered across the city.

In that audit, the inspector general examined how PHA spent $31.4 million to renovate 340 units, using economic-stimulus funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The results are expected to be released soon, said Michael Zerega, a spokesman for the HUD inspector general.

The new audit expands on the earlier one and will focus on the relationship between PHA officials and contractors working on the houses.

The regional HUD inspector general, John P. Buck, said in a letter to PHA that the audit "may be expanded depending upon conditions observed during the audit."

He said the review would take about six weeks and would analyze PHA's operations and internal controls relating to the renovations.

Nichole Tillman, a PHA spokeswoman, said the authority would provide any requested documents "as quickly as possible" to the inspector general.

"We are every bit as committed as the OIG [Office of Inspector General] to find and resolve any outstanding issues," she said in a statement. "Independent of this audit, PHA has embarked on an agency-wide self-assessment with a goal of taking corrective action wherever necessary."

PHA received more than $126 million in stimulus funding, which it spent on nine projects. The authority finished the last of the scattered-site upgrades in December, soon after the termination of Executive Director Carl R. Greene. Greene was fired in September after PHA's board discovered that the agency had secretly settled three sexual-harassment complaints against him.

Multiple federal agencies, including the FBI, are investigating aspects of the state-chartered agency. Separate from the inspector general's audits, HUD is conducting an ongoing forensic investigation.

PHA will receive $371 million this year from HUD. The department has removed PHA's five commissioners and appointed HUD Chief Operating Officer Estelle Richman to act as its board for the next year.