Reports

The economic shutdowns in early 2020 led to historically high numbers of UI claims in a very short time (claim surge), and further shutdowns began in December 2020, raising the potential for additional spikes in unemployment. This audit reviewed EDD’s response to the claim surge, its handling of the resulting backlog of unpaid claims, and the assistance it has provided to individuals through its call center

In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, decision makers across the world created policies to curb the spread of the disease. These policies influenced many aspects of society in an effort to reduce COVID-19 caseload and deaths and limit economic impacts. There is now a growing set of data capturing policies, the effects on the policy environment, and the ongoing impacts of the pandemic itself on different regions and populations, as measured by these different impacts. Together, these data provide a basis to better understand how and whether policies achieved their intended outcomes and...

This report concludes that the five courts we reviewed for this audit—the superior courts in Alameda, Contra Costa, Lake, Orange, and San Bernardino counties—adhered to most of the required and recommended procurement and contracting practices that we evaluated, but they could improve in certain areas.

This audit found that the District’s meal sponsors moved quickly to open Grab & Go meal sites in areas of greatest need, but that their efforts could have been supported better by stronger coordination mandated by District leadership. Specifically, we found that 96% of at-risk students had access to at least one meal site located in their home neighborhood cluster in the first month of the COVID-19 pandemic—later growing to 99% by June—but some neighborhoods with many at-risk students could have had better access to meals sooner.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Postal Service provided vital service, including the delivery of critical items such as medications, stimulus payments, and Social Security checks. Further, the Postal Service is the leading delivery service provider for online purchases. A May 2020 Harris Poll survey on America’s 100 essential companies’ responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, ranked the Postal Service as number one, based on its resolve, integrity, responsiveness, and permanence. Our objective was to evaluate mail service during the early stages of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) disease...

Since the surge in pandemic‑related California unemployment claims began in March 2020, individuals, news organizations, and law enforcement officials have reported many cases of potential and actual UI fraud. Not surprisingly, the pandemic conditions increased EDD’s UI workloads and also resulted in changes to federal UI benefit programs, both of which have created a greater risk of fraud.

The City of Sacramento will be subject to future audits of State and Federal funds, such as the Coronavirus Relief Fund or FEMA Public Assistance. These audits would likely be conducted by an Inspector General’s Office or the Government Accountability Office. The key to successfully withstanding any future audit will be the City’s ability to provide sufficient and appropriate documentation supporting the use of these funds.

We have audited, in accordance with the auditing standards generally accepted in the United States of America and the standards applicable to financial audits contained in Government Auditing Standards issued by the Comptroller General of the United States, the financial statements of the governmental activities, the business‐type activities, the aggregate discretely presented component units, each major fund, and the aggregate remaining fund information of the State of Hawaii (the State) as of and for the year ended June 30, 2020, and the related notes to the financial statements, which...