Office of Refugee Resettlement Unaccompanied Alien Children Grantee Review—His House

His House Children's Home, Inc. (His House), an Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC) grantee responsible for caring for children in Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) custody, met safety standards for the care and release of children in its custody. However, some UAC case files were missing evidence of sponsor background checks and other required documentation. His House claimed only allowable expenditures. However, we identified areas in which His House lacked an efficient and effective system of internal controls when administering UAC program funds.

As a result, His House (1) might not have followed ORR policies for 652 children regarding sponsor background checks, prompt medical care, provision of appropriate clothing, sponsor placement decisions, post-release services, or the notification of the Department of Homeland Security of the child's release to a sponsor and (2) might have placed Federal funds totaling

$9 million at risk of mismanagement or misappropriation.

We recommended that His House (1) develop a policy for maintaining UAC case file documentation that would ensure ORR policies and procedures were followed when releasing a child to a sponsor, (2) increase oversight of its reviewing process for UAC case files to ensure that all required documentation is maintained in the file, and (3) implement a financial management system that requires adequate identification of the source and application of Federal funds and effective accountability of property and other assets. We also made procedural recommendations aimed at addressing internal control deficiencies we identified.

His House did not agree with our findings; however, it concurred with our recommendations and described steps that it had taken or planned to take to address our findings and recommendations.