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The Department of Administrative Services (DAS) made progress on 11 of the 16 recommendations from the original audit, fully implementing six. COVID-19 response and preparation for the 2021-23 budget made it difficult for DAS to implement some recommendations, specifically those pertaining to end of biennium spending. Additionally, the agency’s choice to deviate from standard response options in four recommendations made our follow-up work more difficult and limited accountability and transparency.

This report is intended to provide assurance that the City has established adequate controls over disaster-related expenses to maximize COVID-19 related reimbursements.

The City has established and implemented several disaster management plans – including a Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Plan. Still, additional considerations in these plans would ensure the City is more prepared for potential future pandemics.

Memorandum: The state recognized that some sheriff departments sought and received loans through SBA. Other state governmental entities may have also received PPP loans or may be considering applying for them.

Memorandum: Auditor Office has begun to examine the State's distribution and spending of more than $1.3 billion of federal funding that has been or is expected to be received via the federal pandemic response/stimulus acts – including the CARES Act.

Memorandum: The recently issued U.S. Treasury Coronavirus Relief Fund FAQ1 has implications for the Governor’s proposed Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) program. As proposed, the Vermont EIDL program to be administered by the Vermont Economic Development Authority (VEDA) establishes a perpetual revolving loan fund. However, the FAQ indicates that all loan repayments subsequent to December 30, 2020 must be returned to the U.S. Treasury.

Memorandum: There is desire to inject the CARES Act funding into the community as soon as possible. However, some aspects of this bill raise concerns about risk that deserve your consideration. Creating the program and appropriating $50 million before the Tax Department has established “a formula for determining the amount of grant awards” is a significant delegation of authority without any guidance.

Memorandum: The Office requests the legislature add an explicit requirement in all future bills authorizing the expenditure of COVID-19 funds. The State Auditor’s Office must have access to records that relate to eligibility for and use of economic recovery grant funds.

Act 115 of 2019 established the Vermont Emergency Economic Recovery Grants program and affords the Agency of Commerce and Community Development (ACCD) and the Department of Taxes (Department) significant discretion for developing guidelines to implement the $152 million program, but the law also requires certain procedures and standards. The guidelines developed by ACCD and the Department – specifically the first-come, first-served distribution of public dollars and the absence of an evaluation of need in the application process – may not be consistent with the legislation. This approach does...

Similar to the Economic Recovery Grant (ERG) programs, the Gap program requires that businesses demonstrate economic loss due to COVID-19 but does not define economic loss. If ACCD uses revenue loss to measure economic loss for businesses that were in operation prior to the pandemic, the Gap program will be exposed to the same risk the Joint Fiscal Office pointed out in its November 2020 memo to the Joint Fiscal Committee regarding the ERG program.