Reports

This insights report provides a contextual understanding of the cross-cutting challenges states faced within their unemployment insurance (UI) programs and highlights the substantial work that has been done by State Auditors to ensure their states’ UI programs are functioning effectively. This report examines four common insights across 16 State Auditor Offices: (1) UI workloads surged for states; (2) the claims surge exploited internal control weaknesses; (3) uncommon and varying fraud schemes began to occur as the amount of federal funding expanded; and (4) state workforce agencies...

UI was already a strained system, but the pandemic exacerbated existing challenges and created new ones which lead to massive fraud. We sampled 45 cases and learned about the schemes and methods fraudsters used. Find out what can be done to improve UI for the future. Read our report to find out more.

The Pandemic Response Accountability Committee (PRAC) is charged with conducting oversight of pandemic-related spending to prevent and detect fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement. In May 2021, we engaged MITRE, a not-for-profit federally funded research and development center, to conduct an independent study of lessons learned from the administration of pandemic-related emergency funding for unemployment insurance (UI) benefit programs in a sample of states. The objective of this study was to increase understanding of how states implemented pandemic UI benefit programs and how their...

The PRAC along with 10 of our member Offices of Inspectors General began a case study-based review, in part, to learn more about how much pandemic relief funding went to recipients within six randomly selected communities. Using a combination of federal, state, and local data sources, we identified that 10 federal agencies provided approximately $2.65 billion in pandemic relief funds to the six communities through approximately 89 pandemic relief programs and subprograms during the first 18 months of the pandemic (March 2020 through September 2021). We also found that tracking pandemic funds...

To learn how communities across the nation responded to the pandemic, we initiated a multi-part review of six communities—two cities, two rural counties, and two Tribal reservations. This report is the third community-specific report and focuses on our work in Sheridan County, Nebraska, where we previously identified that recipients, including city government, small businesses, and individuals, received almost $61 million from 31 pandemic relief programs and subprograms. This report provides a closer look at six pandemic programs and subprograms provided to Sheridan County by six federal...

To learn how communities across the nation responded to the pandemic during the first 18 months, we initiated a multi-part review of six communities—two cities, two rural counties, and two Tribal reservations. This report is the second community-specific report and focuses on our work in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, where we previously identified that recipients, including city government, small businesses, and individuals, received almost $314 million from 45 pandemic relief programs and subprograms. This report provides a closer look at eight pandemic programs and subprograms provided to Coeur d...

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal government has appropriated over $3.5 trillion to address the public health and economic crises. Given the changing nature of the pandemic and the federal government’s response, we re-visited our original top management challenges to ensure that the PRAC is providing timely information to Congress and the new Administration about the response efforts. The following four challenges have been added: Preventing and Detecting Fraud against Government Programs; Informing and Protecting the Public from Pandemic-Related Fraud; Data...

This Insights Report highlights identity fraud related challenges in federal programs during the COVID-19 pandemic. By evaluating previous oversight work in this space from members of the PRAC’s Identity Fraud Reduction and Redress Working Group, this report presents best practices to reduce identity fraud before it occurs and to assist victims of identity fraud if it does occur. These best practices may be helpful for federal agencies to utilize moving forward. This report also identifies that across the federal government there is a larger focus on reducing identity fraud up front, while...

Following up on our previous work which highlights the decentralized nature of identity fraud redress across the federal government, the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee commissioned the MITRE Corporation to conduct an independent study and define the elements needs for a whole-of-government approach to identity fraud victim redress. The report proposes a federal redress process that places the victim at the center and requires agencies to assist in a comprehensive manner. Framed as a single enterprise or “one-stop shop,” this process would provide an equitable experience for all...

The objective of this report is to provide insight into the top management challenges facing federal agencies that received pandemic relatedfunding as identified by Offices of Inspector General.