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In this performance audit, we reviewed financial activity from federal funds provided by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. Greenfield Community College (GCC) received grant funds under two components of the CARES Act’s Education Stabilization Fund: direct funding from the United States Department of Education (US DOE), provided through the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund (HEERF), and funding from the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education (MDHE), allocated through the Governor’s Emergency Education Relief Fund. The purpose of our audit was to...

As authorized by state law, our office conducted a state high risk audit of the Department of Health Care Services’ (Health Care Services) management of federal funds related to the COVID-19 public health emergency that began in 2020. Health Care Services administers the Medi-Cal program, which received a significant increase in federal support to respond to the emergency. The following report details our conclusion that Health Care Services is not doing enough—notwithstanding the emergency—to resolve eligibility questions about Medi-Cal beneficiaries and avoid federal financial penalties...

BOSTON – A Leicester woman and man were charged in a superseding indictment by a federal grand jury in Worcester in connection with their alleged involvement in a pandemic unemployment fraud scheme.

We found that SBA established its May 2020 COVID-19 Reconstitution Plan in accordance with applicable federal guidance. We identified issues with the implementation of the reconstitution plan that should be addressed to help the agency safeguard its employees from contracting and spreading COVID-19 in the workplace.We found the agency did not follow occupancy procedures for advancing or reverting phases at its Washington, DC headquarters. SBA also did not implement exposure tracking protocols to ensure it consistently traced COVID-19 cases. We found the agency did not consistently notify its...

An Orange County man is expected to be arraigned in federal court today on an indictment charging him with defrauding victims who paid for COVID-related medical protective equipment that was never delivered, causing nearly $3 million in losses.

A California man was arrested Thursday on criminal charges related to his alleged scheming to submit fraudulent loan applications seeking millions of dollars in Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) COVID-19 relief funds.

The objective of the audit was to determine whether the use of Public Health Emergency Leave aligned with Port policy. In order to achieve this objective, Internal Audit utilized a risk-based approach, selected a sample of individuals who took Public Health Emergency Leave.

The objective of these assessments is to help the City prepare for State and Federal audits of the City’s use of emergency funding. This includes pro-active and real-time assistance in complying with regulatory requirements, securing reimbursements, tracking disaster recovery costs, and evaluating whether funds are being used efficiently and effectively.

The owner of trucking companies in the Inland Empire and elsewhere in California, who was out on bond awaiting trial in a separate federal criminal case, was arrested today on a criminal complaint alleging he fraudulently obtained more than $667,000 in Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) COVID-19 pandemic relief funds.

The Montgomery County Office of the Inspector General initiated a review of Montgomery County's Public Health Emergency Grant (PHEG) Program to determine whether adequate policies, procedures, and controls were in place to efficiently and effectively manage the administration of PHEG awards.

We conducted this review to examine whether adequate policies, procedures, and controls were in place and followed to efficiently and effectively manage the administration and execution of the public Health Emergency Grant Program. We were also concerned that the speed with which the program was implemented may have resulted in errors that disadvantaged intended grant recipients.

The OIG initiated this investigation to determine if DPS employees were obtaining a benefit to which they were not entitled. We were additionally concerned that misapplications of policy were leading to improper payments and further adding to the County's COVID-19 debt burden.

The Montgomery County Office of the Inspector General initiated a review of Montgomery County's purchase of laptop computers to support a mandatory telework order by the Chief Administrative Officer. We sought to determine whether adequate controles were in place during the acquisition, deployment, and subsequent maintenance of the purchased computers.

The Office of the Inspector General recently concluded an investigation to determine if an applicant for County restaurant relief grants provided false or misleading information on grant applicants to secure pandemic-related grant funds. We found that the applicant received $10,000 from the County's Public Health Emergency Grant Program, $3,094.96 from the County's Reopen Montgomery program, and $10,000 from phase one of the Montgomery County Economic Development Corporation Restaurant Relief program.

We have conducted a special review of the procurement and related use of COVID tests from LabGenomics, a foreign-based healthcare company. We also reviewed the circumstances surrounding the termination of two State employees after they had raised concerns related to the COVID tests. Our review was initiated based on a joint request from the chairs of the Senate Education, Health, and Environmental Affairs and the House Health and Government Operations Committees for a review of two COVID-related emergency procurements.

The purpose of this audit was to identify potentially improper payments the Louisiana Workforce Commission (LWC) made to deceased individuals. We found that, of the approximately $8.57 billion in State and Federal Unemployment Insurance (UI) benefit payments made by LWC, approximately $1.08 million (0.013%) was paid to 374 individuals after they died. Of that amount, $629,091 in payments could not have been prevented, $337,007 of the payments should have been prevented by LWC’s current controls, and $123,194 could have been prevented if LWC conducted a weekly match with the Louisiana...

We performed procedures at the Louisiana Workforce Commission (LWC) to provide assurances on financial information that was significant to the state’s Comprehensive Annual Financial Report; evaluate the effectiveness of LWC’s internal controls over financial reporting and compliance; and determine whether LWC complied with applicable laws and regulations. We found that LWC did not have adequate internal controls and did not comply with requirements of the Unemployment Insurance (UI) federal program.

For the period July 1, 2020, through January 31, 2021, we confirmed the completeness and accuracy for two samples of grant applications and supporting documentation submitted by Louisiana businesses.

The purpose of this audit was to provide information on Louisiana’s response to COVID-19 in nursing facilities. We found that nursing facilities in Louisiana faced staffing challenges throughout the COVID-19 pandemic because of staff exposure to COVID-19, illness, or the need to care for family members.

The purpose of this audit was to identify potential improper payments the Louisiana Workforce Commission made to incarcerated individuals who, according to LWC policy and state law, were ineligible to qualify for Unemployment Insurance and federally funded COVID-19 pandemic-related unemployment assistance programs. We found that LWC made approximately $6.2 million in State and Federal UI payments to 1,195 incarcerated individuals who do not appear to have been eligible for the benefits. We found that 81 percent identified through this analysis qualified through the Federal UI program designed...

Overall, we found that while OPH has processes to ensure data on the number of positive cases and deaths is not over-reported on its dashboard, laboratories did not always submit all COVID-19 test results to OPH, and the results they did provide were not always submitted in a timely manner.

This report provides the results of our evaluation of select Unemployment Insurance programs administered by the Louisiana Workforce Commission (LWC). The purpose of this evaluation was to identify potentially improper payments LWC made to individuals who appear to have been ineligible for unemployment benefits based on their income/

The Single Audit Act of 1984, subsequent amendments, and corresponding regulations, require an annual audit of the financial statements and compliance with requirements applicable to major federal programs. Volume II contains elements required under the Uniform Guidance, including the Report on Compliance for Each Major Federal Program and Report on Internal Control over Compliance in Accordance with the Uniform Guidance, and the Schedule of Findings and Questioned Costs.

The Single Audit Act of 1984, subsequent amendments, and corresponding regulations, require an annual audit of the financial statements and compliance with requirements applicable to major federal programs. Volume I contains financial reporting information based on our audit of the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report. It includes the APA’s opinion on the Schedule of Expenditures of Federal Awards (SEFA) in relation to the financial statements, the Report on Internal Control over Financial Reporting and on Compliance and Other Matters Based on an Audit of Financial Statements Performed in...

This audit attempts to answer the following question. What types of unemployment claims fraud schemes is the Kansas Department of Labor aware of and how are they being addressed?

The Office of Inspector General (OIG) conducted an audit of the data privacy and cybersecurity of the Chicago Department of Public Health’s (CDPH) COVID-19 contact tracing program. The objective of the audit was to determine if CDPH managed privacy and cybersecurity risks associated with the collection, storage, and transmittal of COVID-19 contact tracing data in accordance with the City of Chicago’s Information Security and Technology Policies (ISTP) and the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidance.

The purpose of this Monitoring Report is to provide an overview of the State of Indiana’s efforts to ensure proper use of federal funds and compliance with the requirements of the federal COVID-19 legislation. This Monitoring Report also provides recommendations on how the State can guard against waste, fraud and abuse while utilizing money from the federal COVID-19 legislation to fight the effects of COVID-19 in Indiana.

This notification was an advisory notice for representatives of all governmental entities to carefully verify information received in an any correspondence received from IWD regarding claims for unemployment insurance benefits, as unknown parties are attempting to file fraudulent unemployment insurance claims as if they were former employees of certain governmental entities.

This report was initiated due to state and county level employees reaching out to the Auditor of State’s Office to discuss reporting delays related to Test Iowa. The reporting delays mentioned could have a negative impact on the pandemic response by hindering contact tracing and decision-making at both governmental and individual levels..

In this report, we specifically discuss DOE’s policies and procedures regarding department employees and students who are confirmed positive for COVID-19. We intended this report to provide clearer, consolidated, and current information about those policies and procedures.

We intended to report on DOH’s contact tracing process, primarily to filter through the varying, confusing, and often conflicting information and to provide a clearer, objective, and up-to-date understanding of the department’s efforts. However, instead of cooperation and assistance, we encountered barriers, delays, and ultimately were denied access to those responsible for leading the department’s contact tracing: the Disease Outbreak Control Division (DOCD) Chief and the Disease Investigation Branch (DIB) Chief, who recently took over that task.

This limited scope review looks at the measures Department of Accounting and General Services has implemented in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

This review is to inform the Senate Special Committee on COVID-19 of possible areas of concern related to the State's tracking of CRF moneys and compliance with certain federal requirements, the most significant of which is that the State is relying almost exclusively on each state department and county to ensure that their use complies with federal requirements

This operational audit of the Department of Economic Opportunity (Department) focused on evaluating selected information technology (IT) application and general controls applicable to the Reemployment Assistance Claims and Benefits Information System (RA System, also known as CONNECT) and following up on the findings noted in our report No. 2019-183, as applicable to the scope of this audit.

This special report examines and assesses the State of Delaware’s preparation of long-term care facilities (LTCFs) for the COVID-19 pandemic, both in the early stages of the pandemic and again six months later. Our goal was to determine if the state was adequately supporting and resolving pandemic-related issues inside LTCFs and if trends or opportunities for improvement existed. To reach our conclusions, we reviewed publicly available applicable federal and state guidance, agency policies and procedures, and information provided by Delaware’s emergency support function State Health Operations...

The Office of the Auditor of Accounts Office (OAOA) prepared this special report to review Delaware’s public reporting of COVID-19 data. The objective was to provide a clear and unbiased assessment of the public health efforts carried out by the Delaware Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS) in the early stages of the pandemic, March 11, 2020 through June 30, 2020. This includes when the state first made information about testing and cases publicly available on a data dashboard.

To contribute to the D.C. Department of Health’s (DC Health)2 efforts to inform the public of the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on District residents and the District’s efforts to contain the spread of the virus, the Office of the D.C. Auditor (ODCA) has compiled the following report, “The District’s COVID-19 Data Reporting is Strong but Opportunities Exist for Improvement and Increased Transparency.” The government’s dissemination of accurate, real-time data is essential to control the spread of COVID-19.

This audit found that the District’s meal sponsors moved quickly to open Grab & Go meal sites in areas of greatest need, but that their efforts could have been supported better by stronger coordination mandated by District leadership. Specifically, we found that 96% of at-risk students had access to at least one meal site located in their home neighborhood cluster in the first month of the COVID-19 pandemic—later growing to 99% by June—but some neighborhoods with many at-risk students could have had better access to meals sooner.

The goal of this report is to highlight and put into context scientific findings that currently exist around school reopening's, detail key policy measures undertaken within the United States and globally, and bring together the impacts that school closures have had on students and parents in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The analysis presented here establishes a baseline of policies that were implemented in the National Capital Region (NCR)1 , aligned with the intent of the policy, and the data sources available to provide context, including population and demographic, mobility, COVID-19 caseload and death, economic, and geographic data.

To assist the Council of the District of Columbia in its oversight responsibilities during the Coronavirus public health emergency, the Office of the D.C. Auditor (ODCA) has compiled the following letter report, COVID-19 Federal Funding Streams Available to the District of Columbia, a summary of federal funding available to states and, in some cases, to cities, in recently enacted legislation including the following

In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, decision makers across the world created policies to curb the spread of the disease. These policies influenced many aspects of society in an effort to reduce COVID-19 caseload and deaths and limit economic impacts. There is now a growing set of data capturing policies, the effects on the policy environment, and the ongoing impacts of the pandemic itself on different regions and populations, as measured by these different impacts. Together, these data provide a basis to better understand how and whether policies achieved their intended outcomes and...

This report builds on prior analyses and the results of a body of work published since the beginning of the pandemic to assess the role of the COVID-19 mitigation policy in reducing the impacts of COVID-19 on different populations across the United States and, specifically, in Washington D.C., Maryland, and Virginia.

This report presents our compliance audit of the State of Colorado for Fiscal Year 2020. The Statewide Financial Audit Report, which was released under separate cover in March 2021, includes the financialand IT-related findings and recommendations from our Fiscal Year 2020 audit.