Recommendations FAQ

OIG’s Offices of Audit and Evaluation offer recommendations to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and a few independent entities to correct deficiencies and encourage improvements in the safety, economy, efficiency, and management of their programs and operations. 

A recommendation is generally considered “open” on the date its associated report is issued and indicates that the corrective action needed to address the recommendation must still be completed.   

A recommendation is considered “closed” when OIG and the Department agree that the Department successfully completed the recommended corrective actions or when the recommendation becomes irrelevant, impossible, or impractical due to unforeseen events occurring after the report’s issuance. 

Transparency to our stakeholders is a key priority within the OIG.  The Open Recommendation Dashboard is a resource on our website that provides stakeholders and the general public with data on both open and closed recommendations for HUD programs and funding recipients. Through the Open Recommendation Dashboard, users can:

• Identify the total number of open recommendations
• Review the costs associated with specific recommendations
• Visualize data elements through graphs and charts

At the start of each month, the Offices of Audit and Evaluation update their recommendation data on the dashboard.  Our dashboard reflects recommendation data as of the beginning of the month.  For example, if a user is reading the dashboard on February 2023, they would be reviewing recommendation data as of the beginning of February 2023. 

Sensitive information refers to information that could have a damaging impact if released to the public and, therefore, must be restricted from public disclosure.  Generally, certain recommendation-related information that would not be disclosed to the public, based on one of the exemptions established within the Freedom of Information Act (5 U.S.C. § 552), will remain restricted from public disclosure on the dashboard. 

OMB Circular A-50 establishes the policies and procedures for agencies to use when following up on audit reports.  According to OMB Circular A-50, follow up is an integral part of good management, and is a shared responsibility of agency management officials and auditors.  Corrective action taken by management on resolved findings and recommendations is essential to improving the effectiveness and efficiency of Government operations. 

The Open Recommendation Dashboard does not include every recommendation ever made to HUD. The dashboard launched in March of 2023 and includes information on all open recommendations issued from audit and evaluation reports. The dashboard also reflects data on closed recommendations from audit and evaluation reports issued from January 1, 2017 to present.