Reports

The Fiscal Year 2022 Inspectors General Coordinated Oversight Plan for Foreign Assistance To Combat HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria outlines ongoing PEPFAR oversight work initiated in the prior year as well as new work each OIG plans to undertake in fiscal year 2022. In preparing this plan and executing current oversight work within it, the coordinating OIGs continued holding quarterly PEPFAR oversight meetings and introduced a smaller working group for more focused coordination. The plan includes a coordinated proposal, developed within the smaller working group, to be implemented by...

The PRAC’s objective was to review pandemic-related federal contracts and identify first-time contractors and contracts awarded without competitive bidding. We found that first-time federal contractors received $4.4 billion worth of pandemic contracts in Fiscal Year 2020 and that $128 million was deobligated from contracts with first-time federal contractors during the same period. Additionally, we identified the four most common flexibilities identified to justify limited competition were urgency, only one source, simplified acquisition procedures, and authorized by statute. Of these, we...

This guide summarizes the fraud reporting requirements most relevant to entities receiving pandemic relief funds and auditors of those entities.

The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act requires the Office of Management and Budget, in consultation with Department of the Treasury, the Council of Economic Advisers, and the Small Business Administration, to issue quarterly reports to Congress and the public on the economic impact of certain coronavirus funds. This is the fourth quarterly report issued.

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 objective of our review was to evaluate the results of Federal Student Aid’s (FSA) process for suspending involuntary collection and refunding payments involuntarily collected on defaulted Department-held loans in response to the Coronavirus pandemic. We found that FSA suspended administrative wage garnishments and the U.S. Department of Treasury (Treasury) offsets for over 96 percent of the borrowers that FSA collected payments for within 90 days of March 13, 2020, the start of the suspension period. However, as of October 23, 2020, we found that FSA continued to receive administrative...

This brief provides information on USAID’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic and associated challenges, as well as related oversight plans and activities. Information about the pandemic response of the other three foreign assistance agencies we oversee – the Millennium Challenge Corporation, U.S. African Development Foundation, and Inter‐American Foundation – is also included. We prepared this informational brief to increase stakeholder knowledge and public transparency regarding these efforts. This brief reports on activities from the start of the pandemic through March 31, 2021, but has a...

The purpose of this report is to share with the U.S. Department of Education (Department) observations made by the Office of Inspector General (OIG) concerning institutions of higher education (IHE) that ceased to provide educational instruction in all programs of study (closed) and received or had access to coronavirus response and relief aid through the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund (HEERF). We found that 17 IHEs that closed on or before December 31, 2020, applied for and were awarded a total of $4,912,675 of HEERF grants by OPE. Of these 17 IHEs, 14 drew down HEERF funds and 3 did...

Correctional and detention facilities present unique challenges in preventing and controlling the spread of COVID-19. When compared to the general population, a disproportionate number of COVID-19 outbreaks and deaths occur in jails, prisons, and detention facilities across the country. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has noted that the confined nature of correctional and detention facilities, combined with their congregate environments, heightens the potential for COVID-19 to spread once introduced into a facility. Individuals typically eat, sleep, and participate in activities...