The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) was scheduled to disclose a highly anticipated independent annual audit of its finances on Wednesday, but at the last minute, the agency announced that the release of the findings would be postponed.

The examination, compiled by “Integrated Financial Engineering”: http://www.ifegroup.com/ (IFE) of Rockville, Maryland, was to include an in-depth analysis of the capital levels of FHA’s single-family fund used to cover loan losses. The federal agency said the delay was due to potential inaccuracies with the economic models used by IFE.

FHA Commissioner David H. Stevens explained that officials asked IFE to employ testing paradigms that were “above and beyond” the audit’s initial criteria, in order the “better understand a broader range of risk scenarios.”

“Based on these results, we raised questions about the accuracy of IFE’s modeling, and IFE therefore advised us that we should not treat the report as final,” Stevens said. “IFE is now running additional tests to ensure that the final report is accurate.”

FHA has come under fire lately as concerns have mounted that the agency has expanded its portfolio at too fast a pace and could face higher losses as delinquencies rise. Roughly 20 percent of all new home loans are now insured by the FHA, up from 2 percent at the height of the housing boom in 2006.

Critics fear the government’s mortgage insurer may need a subsidy from taxpayers for the first time in its 75-year history. But as DSNews.com reported Thursday, agency officials contend that FHA remains on solid ground.

At Safeguard Properties’ National Property Preservation Conference in Washington D.C. this week, Vicki Bott, FHA’s new deputy assistant secretary for single family housing, defended the agency against rumors that FHA loans are the new subprime and assured the audience that FHA has the money to maintain its position in the marketplace.