Transforming a Federal Agency

Appendix DCFO Letters in the Agency Financial Report

Message from the Chief Financial Officer

November 15, 2018

I was honored to join the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) as its Chief Financial Officer (CFO) after a 37- year career in the private sector. The CFO position has been vacant at HUD for several years. I was brought aboard to focus on the Secretary's priority to protect taxpayers' funds from fraud, waste and abuse and streamline operations. I spent the first 100 days building key relationships within HUD and throughout key government constituents, learning the operations of HUD, understanding the financial statement close process and assessing risk. The people at HUD, especially the Office of the Chief Financial Officer (OCFO) team, have been very helpful in my acclimation process to HUD and government at large.

To operate sound financial systems and operations, an entity needs strong people, processes and technology. I spent considerable time evaluating HUD's people, processes and technology, and concluded each area needs significant attention to restore strong financial systems. There are many root causes for the deteriorated state of HUD's financial systems. It began with a lack of financial leadership at HUD for several years. Also, there has been a significant lack of investments in people, processes and technology. We have great people at HUD, ...