Reports

Using supplemental federal funding, the Wisconsin Department of Revenue (DOR) awarded $220.7 million through its We’re All In program to small businesses, restaurants, and similar entities and $375.2 million through its Wisconsin Tomorrow program to small businesses and lodging establishments. We performed a detailed review of 172 grants and found DOR did not follow written eligibility requirements when it awarded 45 of these grants. We recommend that DOR report to the Joint Legislative Audit Committee on the results of its ongoing efforts to identify and recover program grants it made in...

The Emergency Rental Assistance program helps individuals affected by the public health emergency to cover the cost of rent and utilities. Through June 2021, DOA received $434.7 million in federal funds through the Consolidated Appropriations Act and the American Rescue Plan Act for the program. From March 2021 through September 2021, the program provided $64.0 million in benefits for 15,968 households. We make recommendations for DOA to improve how it administers the Emergency Rental Assistance program, including by improving the program’s application process, modifying the process for...

The Pandemic Response Accountability Committee (PRAC) is charged with conducting oversight of pandemic-related spending to prevent and detect fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement. In May 2021, we engaged MITRE, a not-for-profit federally funded research and development center, to conduct an independent study of lessons learned from the administration of pandemic-related emergency funding for unemployment insurance (UI) benefit programs in a sample of states. The objective of this study was to increase understanding of how states implemented pandemic UI benefit programs and how their...

This insights report provides a contextual understanding of the cross-cutting challenges states faced within their unemployment insurance (UI) programs and highlights the substantial work that has been done by State Auditors to ensure their states’ UI programs are functioning effectively. This report examines four common insights across 16 State Auditor Offices: (1) UI workloads surged for states; (2) the claims surge exploited internal control weaknesses; (3) uncommon and varying fraud schemes began to occur as the amount of federal funding expanded; and (4) state workforce agencies...

The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) awarded nearly $2 billion in supplemental grant funding to 1,387 health centers nationwide in fiscal year (FY) 2020 to respond to the COVID-19 public health emergency. The funding was intended to support the health centers' activities related to the detection, prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of COVID-19, including maintaining or increasing health center capacity and staffing levels during the pandemic, and expanding COVID-19 testing. The performance period for each of these one-time supplemental grant awards, which HRSA began awarding in March 2020, is 12 months. Health centers were permitted to charge to their awards pre-award costs in order to support expenses related to the COVID-19 public health emergency dating back to January 20, 2020. We will determine whether health centers used their HRSA COVID-19 supplemental grant funding in accordance with Federal requirements and grant terms.

The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) is the primary Federal agency for improving health care to people who are geographically isolated and economically or medically vulnerable. HRSA should identify and mitigate risks related to awarding grants to health centers to minimize the potential misuse or loss of Federal funds. In spring 2020, HRSA awarded through three programs nearly $2 billion to approximately 1,380 health centers in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. To expedite distribution of this funding, HRSA did not require that health centers apply for grants. Instead, it made funds immediately available to health centers. Health centers had 30 days from the award release date to submit the information that is usually submitted, reviewed, and approved during the grant application process prior to a grantee receiving funding. We will determine whether HRSA had an effective process for identifying and monitoring high-risk health centers that received COVID-19 grants.