Irving Dennis, HUD CFO
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Ben Carson wants new financial controls “to protect the financial integrity of the agency and correct lax internal processes and controls.” His new Chief Financial Officer, Irving Dennis, will design and execute “a transformation plan.” This transformation includes a “taskforce to combat waste, fraud and abuse.”
“We simply need to do better,” Carson says. “An updated system of internal controls will provide our agency with greater certainty that the dollars we spend are spent in a manner that satisfies all laws and regulations, and most importantly, the American people. We will approach this as any business would by increasing transparency and accountability. In the end, we will also support a culture that respects the fact that HUD funds belong to the public.”
Dennis is a former partner at Ernst & Young. HUD believes his new financial controls will “empower employees” while also increasing compliance and “enforcement-related functions at HUD.”
“I’m excited to apply a business acumen to a task that is necessary for us as an Agency,” said Dennis. “These new internal controls and management practices must be embedded into our organization to help prevent misuse and misappropriation of assets. The goal is to create more robust processes and systems of checks and balances to ensure our expenditures not only meet all of our requirements but pass a common sense ‘smell test.’”
Four major points of his plan for financial controls are:
- Agency-wide Governance
- Finance Transformation
- Grant Modernization
- Process Improvement
