Freeport, IL. (ECWd) –
The Freeport Housing Authority has provided the following document as a response to our article entitled “HUD issued scathing report on Freeport Housing Authority; Designated as “Troubled” –
Read their response in full, below:
1HACF's Edgar County Watchdog Reply12182019
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Categories: feature, Freeport Housing Authroity, Stephenson County
The way I read this letter is that the CEO was brought in to correct the issues, and was not competent to improve the situation without direction/assistance from HUD. This appears to be a case of the Peter Principle. HACF has hired an under/unqualified CEO.
Just like rats and roaches, government agencies hate when a bright light is shined on them.
In Washington state, a fraud investigation by the State Auditor’s office reported on December 16 that the Pierce County Housing Authority finance director misappropriated more than $6.9 million dollars in public funds. Beginning in 2016, the finance director made purchases with the Housing Authority’s credit cards and started transferring funds to her bank account by making the transfers look like payments to vendors. She purchased property (310 acres) in Oklahoma in 2018, the same month she transferred funds from the housing agency to a bank there, the Auditor’s Office said. (The Pierce County Housing Authority budget for 2018 was $33.9 million.)
The Auditor’s Office discovered the theft as part of a routine audit earlier this year. It’s the biggest case of fraud for a local government in the state, according to Auditor’s Office records of the past 25 years. “The Housing Authority did not have adequate internal controls to safeguard public resources,” the report said.