Reports

The audit objective was to determine whether The Golden L.E.A.F. (Long-term Economic Advancement Foundation), Inc. designed and implemented procedures to ensure that COVID-19 Rapid Recovery loan recipients used funds in accordance with the 2020 COVID-19 Recovery Act. The audit found that The Golden L.E.A.F. did not design and implement procedures to ensure that loan recipients used funds in accordance with the Act.

The Short-Time Compensation (STC) program acts as a work share program, with employers reducing the number of hours offered to employees and the state making up the difference in the form of benefit payments. Our focus will be to determine if Department of Labor ensured states met the STC program requirements and used the related funds in accordance with provisions under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, the Continued Assistance Act, and the America Rescue Plan Act for the period of March 27, 2020 to September 6, 2021.

This report examines the damage the pandemic has inflicted on the restaurant, retail, and recreation sectors, and considers the distribution of federal funds for businesses in the City, particularly for businesses in low- and moderate-income communities and in historically underutilized business zones. While approaches to targeting federal funding have improved, the City and the State have already recognized that they need to do more to assist the City’s disadvantaged businesses. The state of these sectors suggests support may be necessary for some time for them to fully recover.

This report provides the results of our evaluation of the Louisiana Workforce Commission’s (LWC) Unemployment Insurance program (State UI) and federally funded COVID-19 pandemic-related unemployment assistance programs (Federal UI). The purpose of this report was to identify potential overpayments or improper unemployment benefit payments LWC made to claimants. Overall, we found that LWC made approximately $2.9 million in payments that potentially violated unemployment benefit program rules outlined in federal and/or state law, including payments to claimants enrolled in multiple programs at...

The purpose of this performance audit report was to assess the effectiveness of the Unemployment Insurance Agency's actions to establish federally complaint claimant eligibility criteria for the PUA program. We ultimately concluded their actions were not effective as the agency established incorrect criteria for the PUA program and failed to take timely or appropriate corrective action when notified of deficiencies by the Department of Labor.

The COVID-19 pandemic has presented significant challenges to Multnomah County. We conducted this audit to support transparent and accountable government operations during this unprecedented time. This report details what the county spent pandemic funding on, which provider organizations received pandemic funding from the county, and whether funds were distributed in alignment with the county’s stated commitment to leading with race. In this audit, we found that county management sought to balance the need to get resources out to the community quickly with also maintaining effective policies...

DOL and states found themselves unprepared for the overwhelming circumstances surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic and struggled to implement CARES Act UI Programs and Continue Assistance Act which added the Mixed Earners Unemployment Compensation (MEUC) program. MEUC is a new temporary, federal program that provides an extra unemployment income to self-employed individuals. As unprecedented levels of unemployment resulted in millions of jobless Americans applying for unemployment benefits during the pandemic this also led to states reporting an inability to process claims, complete required reporting, or perform required overpayment detection procedures due to an inability to hire sufficient levels of staffing. The objective of this audit is to determine how states implemented the MEUC program.

At the time we initiated this review, the Montgomery County Council had appropriated almost $24 million through three separate resolutions to provide rental assistance to residents negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The appropriations funded the COVID-19 Rental Assistance Program, administered by the Housing Opportunities Commission of Montgomery County and the COVID-19 Rental Relief Program administered by the Department of Health and Human Services. We conducted this review to determine (1) if vulnerabilities exist in either program that create opportunities for fraud or abuse...

This audit was conducted to evaluate CARES Act funds designated for City Council-approved small business recovery and housing relief programs. The Office found that Community relief programs were adequately designed to address the economic impact from the pandemic. Controls over the distribution and monitoring of some community recovery programs should be improved to prevent and detect misappropriations. Emergency relief programs can benefit from the lessons learned during these COVID-19 responses.

We have conducted an audit of Homes and Community Renewal (HCR) to determine whether its Division of Housing and Community Renewal (Division) is obtaining federal reimbursements on time and in a manner that recovers all costs, and adequately ensures the Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP) meets federal reimbursement documentation requirements. The audit covered the period from April 1, 2017 through December 31, 2020.