BUFFALO, N.Y. — The Buffalo Municipal Housing Authority stands accused of mismanaging operating funds, as outlined in an Inspector General's Office 26-page report following a recent audit.
In response, the agency's interim executive director, Gillian Brown, acknowledged in a statement that "there is much work to be done to improve our procurement practices," while noting BMHA disagrees with some pointed concerns of the report. Brown's full statement is below.
The audit found that BMHA did not administer operating funds in accordance with HUD, federal and authority requirements. The IG also released a list of six recommendations to HUD to bring BMHA into compliance. In response, a HUD official says the agency takes this very seriously and is reviewing the report carefully.
Brown says he's been working to get everyone up to speed on procurement regulations and how to follow them, and that he's hiring three superintendents to oversee how work is contracted out.
As a result of the Inspector General's report, he says HUD is now conducting a full review of their procurement process.
Brown says that report will provide the agency with a blueprint for best practices moving forward.
He adds that report makes a proposed risk assessment by City Comptroller Mark Schroeder redundant and unnecessary.
"If I'm getting a procurement review for no money from the federal government that funds me, why on earth would I pay $50,000 for a local CPA firm that probably knows little about public housing to come in and do a risk assessment that I would have to pay for?" Brown said.
Schroeder told Spectrum News Monday that his office will conduct the audit with or without BMHA's support.
BMHA is also feeling pressure from the Common Council, which unanimously voted Tuesday to have city inspectors look at five apartments following resident complaints about their conditions.
"I sent staff to all five of those units to go through the whole work order history of each one of those units and to see what, if anything, we had omitted doing and what, if anything, is wrong with the units, and what, if anything, we can do right now to the units,” Brown said.
"I don't want this to be the norm, where the city has to step in. BMHA has a Board of Directors, it has an executive director. The only reason the council got involved was because tenants came to the council," said Common Council President Darius Pridgen.
Pridgen says the inspectors will come in within the next week after BMHA workers do their repairs.
Two other BMHA residents complained to the Common Council last month after their apartments flooded from damaged pipes and were not fixed in a timely manner.
"We have a work order system, we have a phone room, we have the ability to take care of our own units. If we have fallen down on a few units, and obviously we have, we have to pick up the pieces, and we have to fix them," Brown said.
Meanwhile, Brown says the most pressing issue is filling more than 100 vacant units that simply need to be inspected before moving in tenants.
"We have a waiting list that's long enough to fill these units, and right now, it's just money being left on the table,” Brown said.
And to fix all of these problems, Brown will have to do it with much less manpower than when he first worked with the BMHA in 1995.
He said there were about 450 employees for 5,000 units.
Now, there are 137 employees for 4,000 units.
Statement from Brown:
In February, 2018, the Inspector General’s Office of the US Department of HUD began work on an audit of the BMHA’s operating fund. They have now issued their final report. The report contains two “findings,” comprised of several “concerns.”
Finding One concludes that the BMHA did not properly procure goods and services. Finding Two concludes that the BMHA improperly requested, received and used operating funds. As we noted in our written responses which are contained within the Audit report, BMHA disagrees with a number of the IG’s concerns listed within those two findings.
It is important to note that this is just one step in a process. The Inspector General makes recommendations; it is up to BMHA and the local HUD office to resolve the findings. We believe that we have sufficient documentation to resolve the majority of the findings without the need for any reimbursement to our operating fund. It is our position that even these two findings cannot be sustained in their entirety.
We welcomed the Inspector General’s auditors when they began their work, and we thank them for their efforts. However, I need to make it clear that since becoming Interim Executive Director six months ago, I have already started to make structural changes to the way the BMHA handles procurement and purchasing, and will continue to do so. The IG’s work has helped us to drill drown on weaknesses and flaws in our procurement system, and I will continue the process of implementing changes that will make this Authority function better.
Even though I do not agree with all of the IG’s concerns, I know there is much work to be done to improve our procurement practices, and I look forward to working with our local HUD office to implement the best practices available to do so.