Reports

The Illinois Auditor General, conducted a performance audit of the Business Interruption Grant (BIG) program, which was developed under the state's Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO) to provide $585 million in economic relief for small businesses hit hardest by COVID-19. Among their findings the Auditor General noted that DCEO allowed, without verification, BIG small business grant applicants to self-certify that they complied with all laws as well as reporting other pandemic funding. The office's analysis found 196 ineligible applicants received $3.42 million in the first...

New Jersey City University senior administrators submitted a budget for approval by the Board of Trustees (the Board) that proposed using nearly $14 million in federal COVID-19 relief funds to pay for an existing institutional scholarship program. The Office of the State Comptroller found that the University's former administrators were aware that using federal COVID-19 relief funding from the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund to fund the existing institutional scholarship program likely violated federal law. Nevertheless, rather than presenting a budget that reflected the University’s...

We performed procedures at the Department of Education (DOE) to provide assurances on financial information that is significant to the state’s Annual Comprehensive Financial Report; evaluate the effectiveness of DOE’s internal controls over financial reporting and compliance; and determine whether DOE complied with applicable laws and regulations. In addition, we determined whether management has taken actions to correct the findings reported in the prior year. For the second consecutive audit, DOE did not comply with Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act reporting requirements.

We conducted this audit to determine whether state entities complied with significant finance-related legal requirements regarding emergency purchasing. We audited emergency purchases entered into by state entities in response to the COVID-19 pandemic from January 1, 2020, through April 30, 2021, and the expenditures applied against those purchases through December 31, 2021. State entities generally complied with the significant finance-related legal requirements we tested. However, we identified some specific instances of noncompliance related to obtaining and using emergency purchasing...

As part of our fiscal compliance audit of the Department of General Services – Office of State Procurement (OSP) for the period beginning October 16, 2018 and ending October 31, 2021, we found that OSP did not always conduct emergency procurements in compliance with State procurement regulations during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our test of four emergency procurements for commodities and information technology services valued at $54.9 million awarded between March 2020 and May 2021 disclosed that OSP could not provide documentation of the basis for the purchases (such as justification for the use...

From March 2020 through June 2022, the Department of Health Services (DHS) awarded $159.6 million in program grants to 1,431 long-term health care and emergency medical services providers. We question $518,700 that DHS paid to 10 grant applicants that did not submit sufficient documentation to support their grant applications or the grant amounts they requested. We provide recommendations to DHS to improve how it administers its grant programs and its Ventilator Stewardship program. We also recommend DHS improve how its Office of Inspector General ensures program integrity.

This informational brief describes changes to the Department of Children and Family Services’ (DCFS) Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, including how COVID-19 impacted participation, benefit amounts, and program administration. This brief is intended to provide timely information related to an area of interest to the legislature or based on a legislative request. Among other findings, this brief highlights that the number of SNAP recipients increased 27.5%, from 769,768 prior to the COVID-19 pandemic in February 2020 to a high of 981,751 in January 2021. According to DCFS, the increase...

The North Carolina Pandemic Recovery Office, a division of the Office of State Budget and Management, did not adequately monitor $159.9 million in federal funds used for expenditures incurred due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Auditors reviewed the monitoring procedures over subrecipients of state agencies that expended coronavirus relief funds. The office's monitoring procedures required monthly reviews of these subrecipients’ expenditure reports. However, auditors found no evidence of this review. Inadequate monitoring increases the risk that federal funds may not be used in accordance with the...

In FY 2021-22, state agencies administered $20.2 billion in federal financial assistance, including $5.9 billion that was expended related to the public health emergency and that was separately identified in the State’s Schedule of Expenditures of Federal Awards. Our audit focused on 22 federal programs that accounted for 58.9 percent of the federal financial assistance administered. We provided an unmodified opinion on federal compliance for 21 of the programs we reviewed. However, we again qualified our opinion on compliance for certain requirements related to the Emergency Rental Assistance...

Between December 2020 and September 2021, Central Texas Allied Health Institute (CTAHI), a nonprofit City of Austin contractor, committed fraud by misrepresenting over $1.1 million in financial transactions across three contracts with Austin Public Health. In total, CTAHI was improperly paid roughly $417,000 because of its fraudulent contract claims. In addition, CTAHI appears to have overstated its total vaccination numbers and fabricated patient information under its contract to provide COVID-19 vaccines.