Reports

(Audit number: 202040633) Objective: Assess the IRS’s processes and procedures to ensure the validity of COVID-19 relief credit claims.

Title VI of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act), (P. L. 116-136) requires the Department of the Treasury (Treasury) to make Coronavirus Relief Fund payments to each State and Tribal government, and each unit of local government that meets the conditions outlined in Title VI. Payments are to be made no later than 30 days after enactment on March 27, 2020. Title VI also authorizes our office to conduct monitoring and oversight of the receipt, disbursement, and use of funds made available to States, Tribal governments and units of local governments. 

Treasury reports that the Hardest Hit Fund is in a wind down status. SIGTARP will evaluate the status of the program, and Treasury’s planning of the program’s wind down. This will include, for example, TARP dollars remaining to be spent by state agencies, as well as current and estimated future program activity. It will also review Treasury’s direction and guidance to state agencies for wind down planning, and the state agencies’ response.

USAID’s branding and marking efforts enhance the visibility and value of U.S. foreign assistance and are intended to inform beneficiaries that aid comes from the American people. Unfortunately, according to the Agency, beneficiaries of the billions of dollars of foreign assistance provided by the United States every year often have little to no awareness that the aid they receive is provided by the American people.  The objectives of this audit are to determine the extent to which USAID: (1) has policies and procedures to ensure compliance with statutory branding and marking requirements and (2) provided information and oversight to ensure implementers complied with branding and marking requirements. Given particular interest from Congress amid the ongoing pandemic, this audit will consider the impact of COVID-19 under both objectives as appropriate.

The overall objective was to evaluate whether the IRS timely and accurately processed individual paper and electronically filed tax returns during the 2020 Filing Season.   

The Office of the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator and Health Diplomacy (OGAC) has established a goal of 70 percent local partner participation in President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) programs by 2020. Included in the definition of local partner participation is government-to-government assistance, which is especially risky in Africa given the levels of political corruption in countries with the greatest HIV prevalence. The objectives of this audit are to: (1) describe the extent to which USAID’s PEPFAR budgets are on track to meet the goal for local partner funding; (2) assess to what extent USAID’s agency-wide strategy has prepared the agency to increase PEPFAR funding to local partners while addressing risks; and (3) assess to what extent selected USAID missions in Africa followed agency guidance designed to achieve the goal for PEPFAR local partner funding while addressing risks.  The audit also explores topics related to the possible effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on USAID’s ability to reach the OGAC target and the extent to which USAID has identified financial and programmatic risks emanating from the pandemic.