Reports

New York City is one of the world’s premier shopping destinations, topping “best of” lists and drawing visitors from across the globe. The retail sector is a vital part of New York City’s economic and social landscape, with businesses ranging from corner grocery stores to renowned department stores in locations across the City, from neighborhood commercial areas to Manhattan’s major retail corridors. The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the retail trade sector unevenly, with online retailers and some essential businesses experiencing growth and other large retail segments seeing falling revenues...

The analysis presented here establishes a baseline of policies that were implemented in the National Capital Region (NCR)1 , aligned with the intent of the policy, and the data sources available to provide context, including population and demographic, mobility, COVID-19 caseload and death, economic, and geographic data.

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.

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected how the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) provides disability benefits to veterans. On April 3, 2020, VBA discontinued all in-person disability exams that help determine the severity of medical conditions and the amount of benefits paid. The OIG conducted this review to assess how VBA scheduled and conducted exams during the pandemic to limit veterans’ exposure, minimize processing delays, and ensure claims were not prematurely denied due to missed or canceled in-person exams. The OIG also evaluated VBA’s strategy for addressing the inventory of delayed...

The primary objective of this report is to show Missouri's spending of federal assistance in the month of September 2020 for the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) emergency and the cumulative financial activity since the state began receiving funding in April 2020.

The PRAC released the Toolkit as a resource to assist federal, state, and local oversight agencies and professionals in conducting timely reviews and oversight of federal funding. The Toolkit provides OIGs and other oversight offices a set of guidelines, best practices, and lessons learned to help prepare these types of reports for CARES Act oversight and beyond.

This notification was an advisory notice for representatives of all governmental entities to carefully verify information received in an any correspondence received from IWD regarding claims for unemployment insurance benefits, as unknown parties are attempting to file fraudulent unemployment insurance claims as if they were former employees of certain governmental entities.

The Office of Inspector General (OIG) reviewed Veterans Crisis Line (VCL) operations ranging from contingency planning to quality metrics and lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic. The OIG completed remote interviews, document reviews, and surveyed VCL employees and Suicide Prevention staff. VCL staff had historically worked from communal call centers with shared space and equipment, a model that posed a safety risk to staff during the pandemic. To continue operations, VCL’s primary challenge was to equip and transition nearly 800 employees to telework-based operations. Over the course...

The Office has reviewed two of the Governor’s decisions regarding the spending of Coronavirus Relief Fund (CRF) dollars. We are providing this guidance now to ensure the Governor has an opportunity to correct identified spending that does not comply or may not comply with use restrictions. We have also consulted with The United States Treasury Office of the Inspector General to confirm our conclusions.