Reports

The objectives of this audit were to determine whether the Office of State Budget and Management’s North Carolina Pandemic Recovery Office designed and implemented procedures to ensure that State Fiscal Recovery Funds were being spent in accordance with State Fiscal Recovery Fund legislation and programs that received State Fiscal Recovery Funds were achieving their legislatively intended result. We found that $635 million of State Fiscal Recovery Funds were distributed with limited monitoring and $635 million of State Fiscal Recovery Funds were distributed without ensuring recipients had a...

The North Carolina Pandemic Recovery Office, a division of the Office of State Budget and Management, did not adequately monitor $159.9 million in federal funds used for expenditures incurred due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Auditors reviewed the monitoring procedures over subrecipients of state agencies that expended coronavirus relief funds. The office's monitoring procedures required monthly reviews of these subrecipients’ expenditure reports. However, auditors found no evidence of this review. Inadequate monitoring increases the risk that federal funds may not be used in accordance with the...

The objective 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 Fiscal Recovery Fund in accordance with State Fiscal Recovery Fund legislation. The audit found that OSBM accounted for, allocated, and disbursed amounts appropriated to the State of North Carolina’s State Fiscal Recovery Fund in accordance with State Fiscal Recovery Fund legislation. As of June 30, 2022, OSBM allocated a total of $5.4 billion of State Fiscal Recovery Funds.

The audit objective was to determine whether The Golden L.E.A.F. (Long-term Economic Advancement Foundation), Inc. designed and implemented procedures to ensure that COVID-19 Rapid Recovery loan recipients used funds in accordance with the 2020 COVID-19 Recovery Act. The audit found that The Golden L.E.A.F. did not design and implement procedures to ensure that loan recipients used funds in accordance with the Act.

The objective of this audit was to determine the timeliness of first unemployment benefit payments from the Department of Commerce's Division of Employment Security (DES) during the period of January 1, 2020, through March 31, 2021 and, if untimely, identify the causes of the untimely payments. We found that DES did not issue $438 million of first unemployment benefit payments timely during the period of January 1, 2020, through March 31, 2021.

This audit was conducted to evaluate CARES Act funds designated for City Council-approved small business recovery and housing relief programs. The Office found that Community relief programs were adequately designed to address the economic impact from the pandemic. Controls over the distribution and monitoring of some community recovery programs should be improved to prevent and detect misappropriations. Emergency relief programs can benefit from the lessons learned during these COVID-19 responses.