Posted by Tina
It’s been a year since Ben Carson took over as the Secretary of HUD. He’s been quietly draining the swamp and cleaning out corrupt practices that have plagued this department for years. Horace Cooper,a Co-Chairman of the Project 21 Advisory Board, reports on Carson’s progress. First a summary of the problems at HUD:
Liberals love HUD, because it hands out billions of dollars in the name of social justice. Not coincidentally, the money is often hard to account for, which is why it often ends up in the pocket of corrupt officials.
HUD has a long history of mismanagement and neglect. The agency’s financial statements are such a mess that the agency’s own Inspector General couldn’t complete an internal audit of the agency’s books. In fact, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a report in 2016, based on numerous HUD IG and GAO audits over a 15-year period, in which it reported that the agency failed to implement multiple financial accountability recommendations. Additionally, the agency seemingly ignored recommendations to dedicate staff and implement and enforce policies to prevent waste, fraud, and abuse.
What has secretary Carson done to clean up the mess? He acted as a strong leader would. He hired an accountant from one of the nation’s top firms and they began to instill a “culture of accountability and financial responsibility” among the employees. They put procedures in place to manage and account for existing funds. A task force was formed to identify areas of waste and abuse.
The bipartisan spending bill recently passed by Congress increases funding for HUD by 10%. President Trump signed the bill saying he would not sign another spending bill like it. His position on HUD funds is that the states would make better decisions in this area. Let’s hope that given HUD’s poor track record and Secretary Carson’s determination to run the office more efficiently, Congress will decide that HUD is one of the departments that can easily make do with less…at least until we can return the responsibility to the various states. MAGA!