Reports

Millions of Americans still face housing insecurity as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, with nearly 15 percent behind on rent payments at the end of June.1 Households in New York State (22 percent) and the New York City metropolitan area (26 percent), excluding counties outside the State, have an even greater share of residents behind on rent. New York City not only houses the majority of the State’s renters (63 percent), but also had relatively high rates of rent-burdened tenants prior to the pandemic.

The Office of the Special Inspector General for Pandemic Recovery is evaluating funds that were allocated to the Federal Reserve System’s Main Street Lending Program (MSLP), which had 319 lenders and 1,830 borrowers participating in loans totaling more than $17 billion. The objectives of the audit are to 1) assess the process used by banks to issue loans under the MSLP program; 2) evaluate the process used by the Federal Reserve’s Special Purpose Vehicle to purchase the loans;  3) determine vulnerabilities based on a risk-based analysis; and 4) identify specific areas that warrant further audit work.
 

Prosper Portland’s Small Business Relief Fund provided a lifeline during the early days of the pandemic. Staff successfully delivered dollars to struggling businesses but in haste, short-changed program integrity. We make recommendations for building a stronger program the next time disaster strikes.

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 program guidance issued by ACCD on April 27, 2021 for the Economic Recovery Bridge Grant program uses 2020 federal tax loss to establish eligibility for grants consistent with the requirements of H.315 (Act 9). Focusing on tax loss may help target limited resources to businesses that need assistance to remain viable. However, clarification is needed in the program guidance to avoid reliance on a tax-based measure that is not representative of losses associated with the COVID-19 public health emergency and to prevent grant awards that exceed business need.

The Economic Recovery Bridge Grant program in H.315 uses 2020 federal tax loss to establish eligibility for grants. Focusing on tax loss may help target limited resources to businesses that need assistance to remain viable. However, federal tax loss could include some deductions that increase 2020 losses but overstate the businesses’ need for financial assistance.

The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) awarded nearly $2 billion in supplemental grant funding to 1,387 health centers nationwide in fiscal year (FY) 2020 to respond to the COVID-19 public health emergency. The funding was intended to support the health centers' activities related to the detection, prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of COVID-19, including maintaining or increasing health center capacity and staffing levels during the pandemic, and expanding COVID-19 testing. The performance period for each of these one-time supplemental grant awards, which HRSA began awarding in March 2020, is 12 months. Health centers were permitted to charge to their awards pre-award costs in order to support expenses related to the COVID-19 public health emergency dating back to January 20, 2020. We will determine whether health centers used their HRSA COVID-19 supplemental grant funding in accordance with Federal requirements and grant terms.

The purpose of this audit was to determine whether the Department of Revenue (Department) awarded the Extra Credit Grant to eligible individuals in compliance with North Carolina Session Law 2020-4 Sections 4.12.(a)–(d). 1 If not in compliance, identify the causes and the effect of noncompliance. Some low-income families6 did not receive Extra Credit Grant Program payments from the State. These families did not receive the payments because of the additional steps the Department needed to take in order to award payments to low-income families in a short timeframe.

This report presents the results of our internal controls and compliance audit of the Department of Human Services Behavioral Health Division for the period July 2017 through March 2020. The objectives of this audit were to determine if the Department of Human Services had adequate internal controls and complied with certain legal requirements and state policies and procedures related to oversight of grant agreements and payments to grantees.

The purpose of this audit was to determine whether the Office of State Budget and Management (OSBM) accounted for, allocated, and disbursed amounts appropriated to the State of North Carolina’s Coronavirus Relief Fund in accordance with 2020 COVID-19 Recovery Act legislation (Recovery Act). 1