The Clinton administration says it is considering major changes at the Department of Housing and Urban Development intended to end what it calls mismanagement of $1 trillion in programs.
Management has failed in every program at the 28-year-old agency, and the weaknesses are much more serious than initially thought, said a report compiled by a transition team for President Clinton and HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros.HUD employees, weighted down by regulations and still reeling from a 1980s influence peddling scandal, are afraid to make the decisions that can move crucial housing programs along, the report said.
A telephone call seeking comment from Jack Kemp, Cisneros' predecessor, was not returned Wednesday. But Kemp helped the transition team prepare the report, and the document credited him for several reforms.
Cisneros originally planned to push through a series of quick policy changes to weed out what he called a regulation-heavy "gotcha! mentality" among HUD employees that thwarts housing programs.
Now, Cisneros speaks of broader, long-term overhaul, focused on attacking "30 years of organizational arteriosclerosis.'
"There's no way rational people could have overlaid so many rules and regulations on each other," he told a bankers' conference recently. "There just is not any real sense of letting go of accounts and guidelines and organizational prerogatives in order to get things done.
"We're going to set some goals for HUD. We're going to look at the mass of organization, the organizational charts, and try to understand how we can redesign it to meet those goals."
The transition report was drafted by a panel chaired by Andrew Cuomo, HUD's assistant secretary-designate for community planning and development.
It said the department's problems stem from outmoded policies, severe staffing shortages, inefficient computer systems and the scars of a scandal during the Reagan administration.
"It is not the fault of a single person, or administration, nor can one point to a specific policy judgment as its source," the report said. "Its destructive impact is all too clear and devastating."
The scandal involved political insiders who misused HUD resources for personal and political gain. Congress passed the HUD Reform Act of 1989 to curb abuses and improve accountability, and a separate Office of Ethics in the Office of Administration was set up in January 1990.