Reports

During the pandemic, the contracts and grants workforce played a critical role in providing support to taxpayers, local governments, and other recipients through pandemic relief programs. The CARES Act directed the PRAC to review the sufficiency of contract and grant staffing and other resources from agencies across the federal government to determine if they had the resources necessary to adequately perform their duties. The PRAC conducted a survey of 29 agencies, and each provided their experiences on the impact the pandemic had on their agency’s ability to effectively perform their work...

While personnel shortages existed in the health care community before the pandemic, the pandemic exacerbated these shortages. Maintaining an appropriate level of personnel in health care facilities is essential to providing a safe work environment for health care personnel and safe care to patients. The Pandemic Response Accountability Committee’s (PRAC) Health Care Subgroup developed this report to share insights into personnel shortages across four select federal health care programs, or the providers they reimburse. Together, these four programs provide health care services to approximately...

The Pandemic Response Accountability Committee (PRAC) supports independent oversight of $5 trillion worth of relief funds provided by Congress to respond to the coronavirus pandemic. This is an unprecedented amount of money, and it was disbursed quickly. The PRAC has worked with dozens of Inspectors General across the federal government to examine whether it was spent correctly and reached those it was intended to help. Together, we have issued more than 275 oversight reports that reveal common challenges facing agencies across major relief programs like unemployment insurance and loans to...

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...

As a part of our audit of the State of Louisiana’s Annual Comprehensive Financial Report (ACFR) and our work related to the Single Audit of the State of Louisiana for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2021, we performed procedures at the Department of the Treasury to provide assurances on financial information that was significant to the state’s ACFR. The Department of Treasury did not consistently follow its policies and procedures for all grants awarded through the Main Street Recovery Program, which provided reimbursement from the federal Coronavirus Relief Fund to eligible Louisiana...

In this performance audit, we reviewed financial activity from federal funds provided by the CARES Act and the CRRSAA. The Massachusetts College of Art and Design (MassArt) received grant funding under two components of the CARES Act’s Education Stabilization Fund: direct funding from the United States Department of Education (US DOE), provided through the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund (HEERF), and funding from the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education (MDHE), allocated through the Governor’s Emergency Education Relief Fund. Under the CRRSAA, MassArt received direct funding...

The audit examined Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination's (MCAD) case management system to determine whether a backlog was present. The audit also reviewed whether MCAD had created a process for ensuring that CARES Act funds received complied with the policies issued by the Office of the Comptroller of the Commonwealth and whether the employees processing these funds were trained in risk management and information security as required by the Executive Office of Technology Services and Security.

This is the second of two audits pertaining to Vermont’s usage of CRF funds conducted by the State Auditor’s Office. The objectives of this audit were to (1) assess whether and how AHS ensured that only those providers meeting State and Federal requirements received payments under the HCS program and (2) to determine whether selected HCS payments were supported and did not duplicate payments made under other government COVID-19 programs.

The audit examined Worcester State University's (WSU) use of Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund grants received through the CARES Act and CRRSAA. The audit also determined whether users of WSU’s Colleague Finance system (the information system containing financial records used at the university) received cybersecurity awareness training in accordance with standards issued by the Executive Office of Technology Services and Security. Our audit revealed no significant instances of noncompliance by WSU that must be reported.