Reports

The purpose of this report is to determine the extent of implementation of the five recommendations included in our initial audit report, Use, Collection, and Reporting of Infection Control Data (Report Number: 2020-S-55). The five recommendations included four recommendations to the Department of Health and one to the Governor.

This special report provides summary information and four interactive dashboards with Arizona school districts' and chart schools' reported spending in fiscal year 2022 and in total through June 30, 2022, and planned future spending of allocated/awarded COVID-19 federal relief monies as required by law. In total, districts and charters reported spending $2.2 billion, or almost half of their relief monies through June 30, 2022.

This special report provides summary information and four interactive dashboards with Arizona school districts’ and charter schools’ reported spending in FY 2022 and in total through June 30, 2022, and planned future spending of allocated/awarded COVID-19 federal relief monies, as required by Laws 2021, Ch. 408, §54. This special report also provides Arizona Department of Education-reported spending in FY 2022 and in total through June 30, 2022, and planned future spending of the discretionary COVID-19 federal relief monies that it received, as required by the law. This information is included...

To evaluate the State’s readiness to provide essential information needed to respond to the global pandemic, this operational audit focused on COVID-19 data collection and reporting processes at the Agency for Health Care Administration (Agency), Department of Health, and Division of Emergency Management during the period March 1, 2020, through October 9, 2020. As subsequently described, the number of entities reporting data, apparent inaccurate or incomplete data reported to the State by those entities, and the lack of effective access controls in the systems used to gather data, impacted the...

The objective of this audit was to determine whether the Department of Health is collecting necessary data to make informed decisions and promote strong infection prevention and control policies, and whether the data collected by the Department, including data reported to the public, is accurate and reliable. While the Department's duty is to act solely to promote public health, we determined that, instead of providing accurate and reliable information during a public health emergency, the Department conformed its presentation to the Executive's narrative, often presenting data in a manner...

We conducted a state high‑risk audit of the California Department of Education’s (Education) management of the federal funding it received to help local educational agencies (LEAs) respond to the COVID‑19 pandemic. The following report details our conclusion that Education must improve its oversight of these funds from the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund and the Governor’s Emergency Education Relief Fund to ensure that LEAs spend the funding before the associated deadlines and comply with relevant requirements.

We conducted a state high‑risk audit of the California Department of Education’s management of the federal funding it received to help local educational agencies respond to the COVID‑19 pandemic. The following report details our conclusion that California Department of Education must improve its oversight of these funds from the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund and the Governor’s Emergency Education Relief Fund to ensure that local educational agencies spend the funding before the associated deadlines and comply with relevant requirements.

The Office of the District of Columbia Auditor is participating in the National Data Quality COVID-19 Audit effort led by the Delaware State Auditor. This multistate audit seeks to gather information about what COVID-19 data states are collecting and reporting to provide a basis for improved and more consistent data collection nationally in the future. DC Health has built detailed systems and teams to collect, analyze, and report COVID-19 data. At the same time, opportunities exist for reporting more information that the public needs.

This special report compares the metrics of Delaware’s dashboard to other states’ dashboards, and identifies key data metrics that should be considered for inclusion on Delaware’s data dashboard as they pertain to vaccine administration in LTCFs. A review of Delaware’s data dashboard revealed a lack of LTCF data such as total doses administered to residents, total residents partially vaccinated, and total residents fully vaccinated. Delaware’s dashboard does include vaccine dosages administered to the 65+ population, but this data is not specific to LTCF residents

The State of Delaware is required to ensure that the fiscal records at nursing care facilities are retained and properly support the cost report – which is the financial report showing the cost and charges related to Medicaid activities – submitted to the Medicaid Agency. These costs must comply with federal and state regulations. This examination could not be completed because of a severe lack of documentation. Administration at the Jeanne Jugan Residence was unable to produce sufficient data showing how many patients were served each day. Without accurate patient census data, it was...

Auditor Faber’s Office issued a qualified opinion on the Unemployment Compensation Fund, and Business-Type Activities opinion units in the State of Ohio’s financial statements due to internal control weaknesses related to recipient eligibility and claims processing of unemployment benefits. A qualified opinion indicates the auditors could not be assured the financials for these opinion units are fairly presented, in all material respects, based on the issues identified. This is a significant qualification.

This audit is part of a multi-state project to examine data related to COVID-19. This effort was a collaboration among State Auditor offices from Delaware, Florida, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, and Ohio and was developed with assistance from the National State Auditors Association.

Overall, we found that while OPH has processes to ensure data on the number of positive cases and deaths is not over-reported on its dashboard, laboratories did not always submit all COVID-19 test results to OPH, and the results they did provide were not always submitted in a timely manner.

Accurate, complete, and appropriately detailed race and ethnicity data for Medicare beneficiaries are critical to identifying and mitigating health disparities. As racial and ethnic disparities have emerged among those impacted by COVID-19, the availability and quality of data on race and ethnicity has garnered greater attention and scrutiny. This study will describe the extent to which Medicare's race and ethnicity data for beneficiaries are complete and accurate. We will compare these data to data from other sources. We will also determine the extent to which the Medicare beneficiary race and ethnicity data align with Federal data standards.

The Office of the Auditor of Accounts Office (OAOA) prepared this special report to review Delaware’s public reporting of COVID-19 data. The objective was to provide a clear and unbiased assessment of the public health efforts carried out by the Delaware Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS) in the early stages of the pandemic, March 11, 2020 through June 30, 2020. This includes when the state first made information about testing and cases publicly available on a data dashboard.

To contribute to the D.C. Department of Health’s (DC Health)2 efforts to inform the public of the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on District residents and the District’s efforts to contain the spread of the virus, the Office of the D.C. Auditor (ODCA) has compiled the following report, “The District’s COVID-19 Data Reporting is Strong but Opportunities Exist for Improvement and Increased Transparency.” The government’s dissemination of accurate, real-time data is essential to control the spread of COVID-19.

A commissioned study that identifies gaps in federal data sources and how we can close them to improve the quality of the information we provide to the public.

In July 2020, Delaware State Auditor Kathy McGuiness announced the creation of a national COVID-19 Data Quality Audit Template. The template was created as part of a bipartisan, multistate effort with auditor’s offices from Florida, Mississippi, Ohio and Pennsylvania in order to create a uniform approach to data collection, reporting, and monitoring of COVID-19 across the country. Several auditor’s offices across the country have released reports specifically using the COVID-19 Data Quality Audit Template. The goal for this report is to evaluate released reports for common issues that can...