RHS Overestimations of Costs, Open-Ended Contracts Tie Up Rental Assistance Funds, GAO Says

摘要

Rural Housing Service (RHS) overestimates of rural rental assistance (RA) funding needs and its use of open-ended subsidy contracts have tied up hundreds of millions of dollars in program funds, according to a General Accounting Office (GAO) report. RHS has been overestimating its budget needs for its five-year rental assistance contracts by using a higher inflation rate than the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) rate, compounding the inflation rate to the fifth year and then applying that rate to each year, and using expenditure rates that overstate budget needs, GAO said. GAO recommended that RHS be required to use OMB inflation rates in its annual budget and allocation estimates.