STATEMENT OF HOUSING SECRETARY ANDREW CUOMO INSPECTOR GENERAL'S REPORT ON OFFICE OF NATIVE AMERICAN PROGRAMS

WASHINGTON - We welcome the Inspector General's report on Native American housing programs. The work of the IG and her staff should prove helpful as the agency continues to move forward to reform the management of the troubled Indian Housing program.

HUD has been working aggressively to restore the public's trust in the Indian Housing program. We have appointed a strong new leader to run HUD's Office of Native American Programs. We are carefully implementing new legislation which will make our Native American housing programs more effective, efficient and accountable. And even before the Inspector General presented her final report, we have implemented a number of her policy recommendations.

Now that the Inspector General has provided her insights and Jacqueline Johnson is in place as the new leader of the Office of Native American Programs, we are prepared to move forward with the kind of vigorous program review that many other HUD programs are undergoing.

The new HUD will not tolerate waste, fraud and abuse of any HUD program, especially the abuse of a program designed to serve a community with some of America's greatest affordable housing needs.