Anticipating that HUD would react the way they did, I asked the Maryland State Attorney General to protect me under the Federal Whistleblower statutes currently in place commonly used to protect government workers against retaliation from their government employers. They didn't exactly refuse, but they didn't agree to, either. In fact - they referred me back to HUD to investigate itself. Below is the response I received:
I checked and HUD’s website is referring to State whistleblower laws and protections for state employees. I did locate the followinghttp://www.hud.gov/complaints/
Citizen Response Coordinator
Maryland Office of the Attorney General
Isn't that a little like asking the fox to guard the henhouse?! And, in fact I got a very official-looking response from HUDs OIG Division:
OFFICE OF INSPECTOR GENERAL
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20410-4500
Dear Ms. York:
We reviewed the information you provided to our office and determined that
your issues could best be addressed by the HUD program office with jurisdiction in
these matters. Therefore, we recommend you follow up with HUD’s Office of Public
Housing, Washington, DC (3GPH).
Department of Housing and Urban Development
Director, Office of Public Housing Washington, DC (3GPH)
820 First Street, NE
Washington, D.C. 20002
Phone (202) 275-6381
Fax (202) 275-6388
Sincerely,
Michael R. Kirby
Director, Program Integrity
(Hotline) Division
GFI/91
A political hot-potato much? Like I have time to keep writing letters and calling people. No, I don't. I have to pack, since it was no ones job to listen to me and protect me, but - it was everybody's job to take my rent money.
Its very unfortunate to hear a similar story of incompetence & bureaucracy regarding HUD .WISH U THE BEST LUCK&u should write a letter &send it to everybody that works for hud ..someone will listen then..
ReplyDeleteIf someone has not gone through this maze they would think you were mad, as in crazy...mad hatter...however, I found this blog looking for others who have gone through this. Actually I was looking for information that could lead me to some answers because I am experiencing what you experienced...nobody knows their job, they brush everything under the rug because they aren't supervised and they can't be fired. But, now get this, I was one dollar short on my new certification rent and I got a call and a letter saying if it wasn't paid by the 5th, eviction procedures would commence...a dollar!
ReplyDeleteI am a consultant who had evidence of a blatant theft of approximately $50,000 of HUD money. I notified HUD and was ignored.
ReplyDeleteYears later, I was contacted by a HUD OIG person in the Denver office, who said that he was referred to me. I met with him and gave him all of the documentation that would be needed to prosecute: contracts, billing records, and proof that work was billed when it wasn't done.
I heard nothing back and eventually used a FOIA request to get the investigation report. The HUD OIG person interviewed one person who was involved, and that person said, "No, we didn't do it." That person had coincidentally become a HUD employee during the intervening years.
Despite the fact that I had submitted dozens of documents as a neutral third party, the Denver OIG drone stopped the investigation and called it complete because one of the involved parties denied that it was true.
It's unbelievable. All a person has to do to steal HUD money is find a corrupt local government employee to pass through fake invoices. HUD will never investigate, at least not the Denver office, and they'll never even take action if a case is handed to them.