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HUD CFO nominee Dennis defends audit progress, details AI plan to track $77 billion in grants
Summary
HUD CFO nominee Dennis told senators the department achieved a clean audit in 2020, described subsequent control deterioration and a plan to deploy a subrecipient database and AI tools to track about $77 billion in annual grant payments and reduce fraud and improper payments.
HUD CFO nominee Dennis detailed his background as a certified public accountant and his prior service as HUD CFO, saying the department achieved its first clean audit opinion in eight years in 2020 but later received a disclaimer after internal controls deteriorated. "When I arrived at HUD in 2018...we achieved the 1st clean audit opinion in 8 years," Dennis said.
Dennis described priorities to modernize financial and grants management, including a Unified Grant System (HUGS) and a subrecipient database that would use AI to analyze invoices and vendor records. "We send out about $77,000,000,000 a year to our grantees," he said, adding the goal is better visibility into how grantees spend funds and to detect conflicts, fraud, waste, and abuse. Senators pressed whether those program-level disbursement decisions were within his authority; Dennis said execution of NOFAs and grant agreements is a program decision but that the CFO office ensures funds are available and properly accounted for.
Senators also raised the HUD housing trust fund, with one senator noting $238,000,000 sitting unallocated and urging rapid distribution to build and rehab housing units; Dennis said he would work with program officials to move funds while noting many allocation decisions are made at the program level.
