Housing authority weighs reviews

By LEONORA LaPETER

© St. Petersburg Times, published June 23, 2000

ST. PETERSBURG -- Just weeks after the federal government chastised the St. Petersburg Housing Authority for severely mismanaging money, the local agency scored a 92 out of a possible 100 points on its annual review.

How could that be?

Two different federal agencies.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and its auditing arm, the Office of the Inspector General, have completely different notions about the housing authority.

The Office of the Inspector General's May 24 audit accused the agency of misusing hundreds of thousands of dollars, participating in suspect bidding practices and mismanaging its rental voucher program, causing poor families needlessly went without housing.

But HUD's annual assessment, submitted to board members this week, gives the agency a perfect score for both its management operations and financial condition.

While acknowledging the seeming contradiction, the housing authority's executive director, Darrell J. Irions, said that the authority is in good shape overall even if some of the criticisms are valid.

"If the New York Yankees are weak in pitching and the rest of the organization is doing well, they can still be a high performer," Irions said.

For the most part, the latest assessment presented is a self-evaluation of the agency. HUD conducted a resident survey and the site evaluation, but a HUD auditor still must evaluate the authority's management and financial condition.

Last year, the authority's self-evaluation contributed to an annual assessment score of 91.75, and HUD's audit supported that evaluation.

The federal government's conflicting reviews of the authority were a topic of discussion at an authority board meeting Thursday.

Board members seemed to view the latest assessment as evidence that the inspector general's earlier, more negative report was exaggerated in its findings.

"They look at the same thing, but they see it with different glasses," said Irions, referring to HUD and the Inspector General's Office, which is separate from HUD and reports to President Clinton.

But authority officials seemed to retreat from the more vocal criticism they gave the audit in the days after it was released.

"I'm thankful the OIG (Office of the Inspector General) came in here," said authority Commissioner Paul V. Yingst. "It will certainly fine-tune our agency and make us a model agency."

Still, officials continued to blame a lot of the irregularities uncovered by auditors on poor documentation. Many board members said it was crucial to start creating a complete paper trail.

"The documentation, that's where we failed," said board Chairman J.W. Cate. "We had no way to track documents, no way in our files to show how we got from a to z."

Authority staff went over the steps they are taking to comply with 11 recommendations from the inspector general, which were submitted to the authority June 20.

Among the changes:

A new tracking system and a more thorough paperwork trail for contracts and bids.

More precise accounting of the authority's rental voucher, or Section 8, housing program.

The establishment of new accounts to keep public-housing dollars separated.

Irions announced Thursday that HUD's Miami office has agreed to close out the findings if the agency can produce documentation that it has complied with the inspector general suggestions.

HUD spokesman Donna White said she could not disclose anything about the audit or its findings because it was ongoing. HUD will send auditors to St. Petersburg sometime before Dec. 31 to review the authority's compliance.

Michael Zerega, a spokesman for HUD's Office of the Inspector General, said his agency might send its auditors also, but it has no say over the authority once its audit is submitted. HUD's Miami office, which is dealing with the authority, can adopt its findings or reject them.

Still, he said his organization found more than just paperwork problems.

"This was a rather large effort that found a number of very serious systematic problems," he said.

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