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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.