Summary: In deciding on about 7,700 appeals of Farmers Home Administration (FmHA) loan or loan-servicing decisions, hearing officers ruled that lending officials had not made correct decisions in about 40 percent of the cases. As a result, FmHA must reconsider such applications and again decide whether to offer the appellants loans or loan servicing. GAO estimates that nearly half of the 2,900 appellants whose cases were remanded received at least part of their requested loans or loan servicing. FmHA reconsidered and denied loans or loan servicing for 19 percent of the appellants. Another 14 percent did not receive loans or loan servicing because they had rejected FmHA's offers. Actions for the remaining 18 percent of the appellants were still pending at the time of GAO's review. Although FmHA regulations generally specify time frames for completing actions on initial loan and loan-servicing applications, the agency has not set deadlines for completing actions on remanded decisions. GAO estimates that only 34 percent of the appellants who received loans and loan servicing had their appeals processed in a timely way. Appellants' not providing information in a timely manner was the main reason cited by FmHA officials for the delays.
