Tighter standards in HUD procurement?

- There's a step toward stricter monitoring of HUD contracts among the HUDCLIPS "What's New" items posted Friday. The item is a rule change affecting Handbook 2210.3 Rev. 9, and what it does is to take away the unilateral power of the program office heads to appoint certain representatives who negotiate and watch over HUD's public contracts. Interesting, because program office heads are at least sometimes political appointees. (The term is defined on the second page of this form.) As of Friday's rule change, the program office heads still get to nominate candidates to be Government Technical Representatives and Government Technical Monitors, but the relevant Contracting Officer is to approve the said nominees, if and only if the said nominees appear qualified. Here's the transmittal letter, which is from HUD Chief Procurement Officer Joseph A. Neurauter, and here's the rule book chapter that he just revised. By the way, GovExec did a profile of Mr. Neurauter in September and he looks like an interesting guy. It says he's an ex-military man who just last year was investigating "an information technology contract administered through the Interior Department that was used to supply the Army with civilian interrogators in Iraq."

Also in recent federal housing announcements:

- The "What's New" page also has a slew of redrafted forms posted this past week, including some of interest to multifamily developers.

- Your chance to comment on how HUD might better conduct its next study of multifamily buildings' compliance with the Fair Housing Accessibility Guidelines, LIHTC properties specifically mentioned. Comments are due Feb. 3.

- Clean running water still not universally available in Texas, not even in urban counties.

- If you ever wondered who exactly was the National Multi Housing Council, the group has just posted its annual list of $200-plus contributors.