Reports

We evaluated the U.S. Small Business Administration’s (SBA) controls to flag or prevent potentially fraudulent Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) applications submitted from foreign Internet Protocol (IP) addresses. Although the agency implemented several layers of controls to prevent or reduce fraud from foreign countries, individuals at foreign IP addresses were able to access the COVID-19 EIDL application system. SBA received millions of attempts to submit COVID-19 EIDL applications from foreign IP addresses and stopped most of them; however, the agency...

This Office of Inspector General (OIG) Comprehensive Healthcare Inspection Program (CHIP) report highlights the results of a focused evaluation of Veterans Health Administration (VHA) facilities’ medication management related to remdesivir use. The report describes medication management-related findings from healthcare inspections performed at 34 VHA medical facilities during fiscal year 2021. Each inspection involved interviews with key staff and reviews of clinical and administrative processes. The OIG found that VHA met many elements of expected performance, including the availability of...

We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Emergency Solutions Grants Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) (ESG-CV) program. Our audit objective was to determine what challenges ESG-CV grant recipients faced in implementing the program and using grant funds. We used a survey questionnaire to gather feedback and insight directly from the 362 recipients of ESG-CV grants. At the time we initiated this audit in July 2021, ESG-CV grant recipients had spent $563,178,336 of available $3.96 billion grant funds. We performed this audit to assist...

There have been multiple public and private reports that identity service contractors did not provide equitable access to unemployment compensation and mishandled confidential information. We will determine if Employment and Training Administration (ETA) and states provided sufficient oversight from March 27, 2000 – present over facial recognition technology used by identity service contractors. 

As of March 2021, DOL reported approximately 77 million additional workers had filed initial jobless claims from March 2020 to March 2021. In June 2021, DOL OIG issued a request for updated data to ETA and State Workforce Agencies (SWA) for updated data; once received, OIG data analysis identified $1.3 billion in potentially fraudulent UI benefits paid to claimants in two high-risk categories based on claimant age groups: (1) children under the age of 14 years old, and (2) adults 100 years of age or older. Given the magnitude of payments made to potentially likelihood of ineligible claimants in these age categories groups, we are developing an alert memo to bring immediate attention to this issue.

Coronavirus pandemic restrictions delayed work and limited on-site oversight, with disproportionate impacts to some communities.

The Office of Inspector General (OIG) found that the Small Business Administration (SBA) did not have an organizational structure with clearly defined roles, responsibilities, and processes to manage and handle potentially fraudulent Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans across the program.

Objective: To determine whether the Social Security Administration (SSA) had adequate controls over mail processing during the COVID-19 pandemic.