Reports

The objective of this audit is to determine whether the DoD medical treatment facilities experienced shortages in health care personnel during the Coronavirus Disease–2019 pandemic, the impact of personnel shortages, and mitigation strategies to reduce shortages during future pandemics. 

Personnel supporting Federal health care programs are a resource critical to the Federal COVID-19 pandemic response efforts. Health care facilities must be prepared for potential personnel shortages and must have plans and processes in place to mitigate these shortages to combat the COVID-19 pandemic and future pandemics. The PRAC will coordinate a review of four Federal health care programs to determine whether these programs, or the providers they reimburse, experienced shortages in health care personnel during the pandemic, the impact of those health care personnel shortages, and strategies used by the Departments to reduce shortages of health care personnel for future pandemics.

The objective of this audit is to determine whether cardholders used the Government Purchase Card to support DoD's response to the pandemic in accordance with Federal and DoD policies. We may revise the objective as the audit proceeds, and we will also consider suggestions from management for additional or revised objectives.

The objective of this audit is to determine whether the Military Departments are processing exemption requests for the Coronavirus Disease–2019 vaccination and taking disciplinary actions for active duty Service members in accordance with Federal and DoD guidance. 

Throughout the pandemic, the use of telehealth has been critically important to ensure continued and expanded access to care while reducing the risks of exposure and spread of COVID-19.  As the effects of the pandemic are still being felt throughout the Nation, there are questions about how telehealth can best be used to meet the needs of beneficiaries in the future. The PRAC will conduct and coordinate a review of six Federal healthcare programs to identify the nature of telehealth across these programs and to identify any potential integrity risks associated with telehealth programs and the facilitation of telehealth care.

We are conducting the subject audit at the request of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform. The objective of this audit is to determine the actions taken by the DoD to configure remote access software used to facilitate telework during the COVID-19 pandemic to protect DoD networks and systems from potential malicious activity. We will also determine the extent to which the DoD implemented security controls to protect remote connections to its networks. We may revise the objective as the audit proceeds, and we will consider suggestions from management for additional or revised objectives.

The objective of this audit is to determine whether DoD’s deployment of collaboration tools used to facilitate telework during the coronavirus disease–2019 (COVID-19) pandemic exposed DoD networks and systems to potential malicious activity, and the extent to which the DoD implemented security controls to protect the collaboration tools used on its networks. We will perform this audit in accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards. We may revise the objective as the audit proceeds, and we will consider suggestions from DoD management for additional or revised objectives.

We plan to begin the subject audit in July 2021. The objective of this audit is to determine whether U.S. Africa Command, U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, and U.S. Southern Command officials used Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act funding to support the coronavirus disease–2019 pandemic response and operations in accordance with Federal laws and DoD policies. We may issue separate reports for each combatant command, revise the objective as the audit proceeds, and will consider suggestions from management for additional or revised objectives.

Federal agencies were allocated more than $5 trillion in pandemic response funding to be disbursed to the public and to state and local governments, where a state or local government could have received pandemic response funds from multiple federal programs to improve the overall pandemic response in their communities. Access to information about the total amount of funds received, the purpose of those funds, and the progress made toward achieving the program goals and objectives is not always centralized and can be difficult for the public to track down or may not even be available to the public. The PRAC will conduct impact case studies at 6 different locations and seek to identify the federal pandemic response funds provided to the 6 locations and the purpose of those funds, and to determine if the federal program spending aligned with the intended goals and objectives. The 6 locations identified for this project include: Springfield, Massachusetts; Coeur d’Alene, Idaho; Marion County, Georgia; Sheridan County, Nebraska; White Earth Indian Nation, Minnesota; and Jicarilla Apache Nation, New Mexico.

The CARES Act requires that the PRAC conduct and coordinate oversight of covered funds and the Coronavirus response and support Inspectors General in the oversight of covered funds and the Coronavirus response. The purpose of this review is to assess the resources (staffing, training, IT, oversight, and resources overall) available to the acquisition and grants workforce in their implementation of contracts and grants funded with COVID-19 response funds. The resulting report will meet the requirements outlined in the CARES Act and present an assessment of information obtained during the data call, including any trends, best practices, or challenges.