Reports

The Mississippi Department of Employment Security (MDES) administers Mississippi’s unemployment benefits programs. With the influx of jobless claims and COVID relief aid as a result of the pandemic, total unemployment benefit claims increased from $59.6 million in FY 2019 to $2.1 billion in FY 2020. With this infusion of money came massive fraud and misspending. For example, from FY 2020 to FY 2021, known overpayments increased from $118 million to $474 million. The massive loss of money from Mississippi’s unemployment fund is partially the result of MDES bypassing or altering their own...

This Single Audit identifies federal funds spent by state agencies from July 1, 2020, to June 30, 2021. During this time, many state agencies were drawing down federal stimulus dollars from the Coronavirus Relief Fund. In this audit millions of questioned costs were discovered. Notable findings include that the Mississippi Department of Employment Security saw a 301 percent increase in known overpayments from the previous year and made at least $473 million in improper or fraudulent unemployment payments this year. This included unemployment payments to prisoners and people outside of...

The audit concluded that the Alaska Small Business Relief Program disbursed approximately $282 million of CARES Act funds through the issuance of 5,754 grants; however, the distribution rate of grant funds fell far short of expectations. The State expected to distribute $150 million per month, yet only $18 million was distributed by the end of the program’s second month. Additionally, Results of testing found a high rate of unallowable grant awards. Auditors tested 155 grants and identified at least one error for 39 percent of the grants tested.

On 27 March 2020, Congress passed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, which provided emergency assistance and healthcare response for individuals, families, and businesses affected by the Coronavirus disease. Section 3610 of the CARES Act provided agencies discretionary authority to reimburse costs of paid leave to federal contractors and subcontractors using existing appropriations to keep these individuals in a ready state and to protect the life and safety of government and contractor personnel. Given the unprecedented circumstances surrounding these Section 3610...

The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) OIG conducted this evaluation to identify any best practices implemented or challenges encountered by NRO Headquarters and selected field sites in responding to the pandemic. Areas of evaluation contained in this report include mission sustainment, policy, leadership, facilities and logistics, health and safety, communications, and human resources. This report is fundamentally informational and contains perspectives and opinions of NRO’s leadership and workforce.

The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) Office of Inspector General (OIG) is conducting an evaluation of the NRO’s implementation of section 3610 authorized by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.  The objectives are to evaluate the NRO’s implementation of section 3610 authorized by the CARES Act and to identify preliminary impacts to NRO mission.