FOX Carolina Investigates: Greenville Housing Authority audits

GREENVILLE, S.C. (FOX Carolina) - Right now, experts are taking a close look at the finances of the Greenville Housing Authority because its governing board wants to know if funds were misused.

Earlier this month, the Housing Authority put CEO Shawn Williams on administrative leave after she was indicted for racketeering stemming from her time at the Georgia Department of Community Affairs, where she worked before coming to Greenville in 2020.

The Greenville Housing Authority has to undergo an audit every year, which they present to Greenville City Council and the mayor, to make sure they are legally and efficiently utilizing federal funds to provide low-income housing.

We got a hold of their three most recent reports through a Freedom of Information Act request and discovered they’ve had issues in the past.

The audit for the 2020 calendar year found “significant deficiencies,” according to the 53-page report from accounting firm Maletta & Company.

The certified public accounting firm specializes in auditing non-profits.

They found “income calculations performed during annual re-examinations contained errors,” which is important because how much a participant makes determines how much rent they pay.

The accountants looked at a sample of nearly 3,000 cases. Out of 40 files, three contained calculation errors totaling almost $5,000 in overpayments to participants.

The same audit also found “tenant files were incomplete.” Auditors attributed this to “Insufficient oversight of third-party management agents.”

However, according to the audit from the following year, in 2021, both problems were fixed.

We reached out to a spokesperson for the Housing Authority who said Maletta & Company was about to finish their 2022 audit when the indictment came down against Williams.

The spokesperson said after that, the firm was asked to go back and review 2020 and 2021.

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