Executive Summary
This executive summary is presented to provide an overview of my more detailed report on my independent investigation into allegations of ongoing fraud, waste and abuse at Texoma Housing Partners (THP), which follows this summary. I would like to stress that I was allowed unlimited access to any document and or employee for whatever purpose deemed necessary to conduct my investigation. Because of subsequent allegations against other members of the Executive Leadership Team at TCOG, my point of contact was Dr. Randy McBroom, Deputy Director and Director of Government Services.
A report of suspected fraud, waste and abuse (FWA) was first made by a maintenance employee at THP on October 13, 2015. Because the individual he suspected of FWA was his immediate supervisor, the Maintenance Program Manager Gary Edwards, he reported it to the Public Housing Program Manager of THP. Mr. Edwards was questioned on October 14, and did not deny the allegations against him. Mr. Edwards was terminated at 1:00 PM on that same day.
As other maintenance staff came forward with additional allegations and information, an internal investigation was conducted to follow up on the additional allegations. The allegations reported by the staff were substantiated during the investigation. In addition to the allegations reported by staff, the investigation also reported numerous fraudulent invoices for Unit Make Ready expenditures. This gave rise to the question whether the FWA was more widespread and possibly involved more individuals than just Mr. Edwards.
As a result of my procedures, I concurred with the results of the internal investigation, with the exception of the fraudulent invoices. Page 3 of my report details the additional procedures performed by myself on the identified fraudulent invoices. As a result of those procedures, I believe the invoices were for legitimate services provide to THP.
I performed additional procedures which are described in more detail in my report. Additionally, I reviewed other documents such as audit reports and HUD assessments of performance.
As a result of the procedures I performed, I did not identify any ongoing fraud, waste and abuse at Texoma Housing Partners. I did not identify any circumstances which caused me to believe that management at THP or TCOG had any knowledge of the FWA being perpetrated by Gary Edwards.
