**GAO-10-587R**                      Published: Jun 03, 2010. Publicly Released: Jun 03, 2010.                  

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## Highlights

 

In November 2009, we issued our opinion on the fiscal year 2009 financial statements of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA). Our report also included our opinion on the effectiveness of FHFA's internal control over financial reporting as of September 30, 2009, and our evaluation of FHFA's compliance with provisions of selected laws and regulations for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2009. The Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 (HERA) created FHFA and gave it responsibility for, among other things, the supervision and oversight of the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae), the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac), and the 12 federal home loan banks. Specifically, FHFA was assigned responsibility for ensuring that the regulated entities operate in a fiscally safe and sound manner, including maintenance of adequate capital and internal controls, in carrying out their housing and community development finance mission. HERA requires FHFA to annually prepare financial statements, and requires GAO to audit these statements. HERA established FHFA as an independent agency on July 30, 2008. HERA also abolished, effective within 1 year of the act's enactment, the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) and the Federal Housing Finance Board (FHFB). During fiscal year 2009, OFHEO's and FHFB's personnel, property, and mission responsibilities were transferred to FHFA, and the assets, liabilities, and financial transactions of OFHEO and FHFB became FHFA's responsibility. While FHFA was in existence prior to the start of fiscal year 2009, this was its first full year of operations and the first year for which it prepared financial statements. Prior to July 1, 2009, FHFA processed transactions using the separate accounting systems of FHFB and OFHEO. On July 1, 2009, FHFA began using its own accounting system. The purpose of this report is to present issues identified during our audit of FHFA's fiscal year 2009 financial statements regarding certain internal controls and accounting procedures and to recommend actions to address those issues.

 

## Recommendations

## Recommendations for Executive Action

See All 6 Recommendations

## Full Report

Full Report (16 pages)

Accessible Text 

## GAO Contacts

J. Lawrence Malenich
malenichj@gao.gov

(202) 512-9399

## Office of Public Affairs

Sarah Kaczmarek
kaczmareks@gao.gov

(202) 512-4800

## Topics

Auditing and Financial Management

Accounting proceduresBudget obligationsCommunity developmentDocumentationFinancial recordsFinancial statement auditsFinancial statementsHousingInternal controlsRecords managementReporting requirementsOther transactionsPolicies and proceduresFinancial reporting