FERRIDAY, La. – The issue of whether Charles Bell will be fired as executive director of the Ferriday Housing Authority is up to the authority’s board of commissioners, a federal housing official said Thursday.

&uot;HUD’s job is to make sure such authorities are operating properly,&uot; said Marvel Robertson, spokesperson for the U.S. Housing and Urban Development office in New Orleans. &uot;HUD does not have the authority to hire or fire a director — only the board can do that. … The ball’s in (the board’s) court.&uot;

The board on Tuesday voted unanimously to place Bell on a 30-day leave with pay. Bell could not be reached for comment Thursday.

In a Thursday article, Commissioner Sammy Davis Jr. said HUD had given board members an ultimatum after reviewing the results of an internal audit of the authority: either fire Bell or you will be replaced yourselves.

Robertson denied Thursday that such a statement was made by anyone at HUD. Davis will not say who gave such an ultimatum or how it was communicated to board members — but he stands by his earlier statement.

&uot;Those were the options that we (the board) were given,&uot;&160;Davis said.

Robertson did say that HUD has received word of the board’s action and confirmed that that action was made &uot;pending a review of issues that were brought up in an internal audit that (was) made of the authority.&uot;

Bell’s leave came less than two weeks after the State Auditor’s Office released a report by the authority’s own auditor showing accounting discrepancies from the last three fiscal years. That report was not done by the State Auditor’s Office. But State Auditor Dan Kyle alleged that the accountant, Mike Estes of Fort Worth, Texas, only reviewed the authority’s records so extensively because he knew Kyle’s office was investigating the authority.

And in a response Bell sent to Chester Drozdowski, director of the HUD office in New Orleans, Bell agreed.

&uot;The (authority) firmly believes that the findings by the independent auditor are largely influenced by the fact that the Legislative Auditor is investigating the (authority),&uot; Bell wrote.

He added that the authority &uot;questions the nature, the truthfulness and the timing of these … findings.&uot;

Estes’ report showed budget overruns, property purchases and loans not federally approved, and a lack of documentation of some expenses.

The authority is audited annually by HUD and had gotten perfect or near-perfect performance scores for the past several years.

But in a letter Drozdowski wrote to the authority’s board in April, he said that such scores have been overshadowed by Estes’ findings &uot;that you have budget overruns totaling in excess of $100,000 (and) that your negative surplus violates Louisiana state law.&uot;

He also stated that HUD’s Real Estate Assessment Center had issued a preliminary financial of 10, the lowest possible score, for the authority.