Reports
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Department of Commerce OIG
EDA Needs to Improve Oversight of CARES Act Revolving Loan Funds to Ensure Loans Are Made to Eligible Borrowers and Used as Intended
Our audit found that loan costs claimed by the RLF operators were not allowable, allocable, and reasonable. Specifically, we found that the four operators awarded 11 of the 19 loans (58 percent), totaling $4,020,050, to ineligible borrowers that did not meet the eligibility criteria in the operators’ respective RLF operational plan, and borrowers did not use the RLF funds for the purpose intended by the CARES Act. As a result, we are questioning $4,020,050 in loan funds. In addition, we found RLF operators with 20 percent or more loans that were delinquent, in default, or written off, and EDA...
Department of Commerce OIG
Puerto Rico’s Department of Natural and Environmental Resources Properly Disbursed Funds but Was Slow in Expending Fishery Disaster Assistance Funds
We audited the Puerto Rico’s Department of Natural and Environmental Resources (PRDNER’s) use of Federal Emergency and Pandemic Relief Financial Assistance Funds. Our audit objective was to determine whether federal funds received by PRDNER to support its fisheries in recovering from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic1 and damages caused by several hurricanes were properly disbursed and used for their intended purpose. We conducted this audit in response to a congressional request, and answers to congressional questions about disaster relief funds are included in this report. Overall, we...
Department of Commerce OIG
Independent Program Evaluation of National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Pandemic Relief Program
For the independent program evaluation of National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Pandemic Relief Program, the evaluation objective was to determine whether NIST grantees and subrecipients accounted for and expended pandemic relief funds provided under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act and subsequent funding authorizations in accordance with federal laws and regulations. We contracted with the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA), an independent firm, to perform this evaluation. Our office oversaw the evaluation’s progress to ensure that IDA performed it in...
Kansas Legislative Division of Post Audit
COVID Relief Funding Distribution
Our audit objective was to answer the following questions: (1) What is Kansas’ process for distributing COVID relief funding?; and (2) Have Kansas’ distributions of COVID relief funding been appropriate? The scope of our work included examining the distribution process for CARES Act and American Rescue Plan Act funding. Additionally, we evaluated a sample of CARES Act expenditures made in 42 Kansas counties.
Kansas Legislative Division of Post Audit
Reviewing Connectivity Emergency Response Grants for Broadband Development
Our audit objective was to answer the question: what entities received Connectivity Emergency Response Grants and where were they located? We found that the Kansas Department of Commerce (Commerce) awarded $48.5 million in Connectivity Emergency Response Grant funds through 66 grants to all seven regions in Kansas with the largest amounts going to South Central, Southwest, and Northeast Kansas. We also found that Commerce denied some applications through its review process.
California State Auditor
California Department of Education:It Needs to Provide Better Oversight to Ensure That Local Educational Agencies Promptly and Effectively Use Federal COVID‑19 Funds
We conducted a state high‑risk audit of the California Department of Education’s (Education) management of the federal funding it received to help local educational agencies (LEAs) respond to the COVID‑19 pandemic. The following report details our conclusion that Education must improve its oversight of these funds from the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund and the Governor’s Emergency Education Relief Fund to ensure that LEAs spend the funding before the associated deadlines and comply with relevant requirements.
California State Auditor
California Department of Education: It Needs to Provide Better Oversight to Ensure That Local Educational Agencies Promptly and Effectively Use Federal COVID‑19 Funds
We conducted a state high‑risk audit of the California Department of Education’s management of the federal funding it received to help local educational agencies respond to the COVID‑19 pandemic. The following report details our conclusion that California Department of Education must improve its oversight of these funds from the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund and the Governor’s Emergency Education Relief Fund to ensure that local educational agencies spend the funding before the associated deadlines and comply with relevant requirements.
California State Auditor
Federal COVID-19 Funding: Emergency Rental Assistance Program
This report focuses exclusively on The Department of Housing and Community Development's (HCD) progress in committing and awarding rent relief program benefits to eligible California households by the first crucial federal deadline, which is September 30, 2021. Although HCD is making significant progress toward meeting the first federal deadline, it must commit additional benefits to eligible households in order to reduce the State’s risk of losing millions of dollars in federal funds for this program.
Kansas Legislative Division of Post Audit
Evaluating the Kansas Department of Labor’s Response to COVID-19 Unemployment Claims (Part 2)
This audit report assessed what factors caused delays in the Kansas Department of Labor’s unemployment claims processing during the COVID-19 pandemic? To answer this question, we spoke with officials from the Kansas Department of Labor (KDOL) and reviewed KDOL staffing, incident, and call center reports. This audit also includes an updated unemployment insurance fraud estimate. In February 2021 we released the first part of this audit. In that audit we reported a preliminary estimate of how much fraud could have occurred in Kansas in 2020. In this report, we used KDOL claims data from January...