Reports

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 COVID-19 pandemic has presented significant challenges to Multnomah County. We conducted this audit to support transparent and accountable government operations during this unprecedented time. This report details what the county spent pandemic funding on, which provider organizations received pandemic funding from the county, and whether funds were distributed in alignment with the county’s stated commitment to leading with race. In this audit, we found that county management sought to balance the need to get resources out to the community quickly with also maintaining effective policies...

The Auditor’s Office follows up on audit recommendations to support county government’s accountability. The county implemented most of the Auditor’s recommendations from the first audit report on the county’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. However. the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office did not implement our recommendation to expand the use of free-phone calls or modify lobby video visit operations to allow for safe use. Also, for Library locations, the county did not implement our recommendation to add COVID-19 specific cleaning and disinfecting requirements into its contracts with...

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.

This report summarizes the results of the Survey of Employee Experiences During the Pandemic, issued by the Auditor’s Office in September 2020. Responses overall were generally positive. However, in analyzing the data and reading over 8,000 written comments, it is clear that employees have had very different experiences.

We conducted this audit to support transparent and accountable government operations during this unprecedented time. We focused our work on determining steps the county took to ensure that vital services could continue safely and equitably during the pandemic; whether those steps were in line with guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other health authorities to reduce health risks; and what improvements can be made moving forward.

The PRAC and pandemic OIGs identified the possibility of recipients receiving funding from multiple federal programs for the same purpose ( multi-dipping When a recipient receives money from multiple federal sources and uses it for the same purpose, this could be an indication of multi-dipping. ) as a high risk area. This project will focus on funds received by tribal governments, and result in an information brief that identifies programs where multi-dipping When a recipient receives money from multiple federal sources and uses it for the same purpose, this could be an indication of multi-dipping. has occurred in CARES Act programs allowing us to identify and scope the magnitude of the risk. 

Part of our hotline work is educating county employees about fraud red flags. As an extension of that service, we are sharing tips to help community members stay safe online during the coronavirus pandemic.