Reports

This special report provides summary information and four interactive dashboards with Arizona school districts' and chart schools' reported spending in fiscal year 2022 and in total through June 30, 2022, and planned future spending of allocated/awarded COVID-19 federal relief monies as required by law. In total, districts and charters reported spending $2.2 billion, or almost half of their relief monies through June 30, 2022.

This special report provides summary information and four interactive dashboards with Arizona school districts’ and charter schools’ reported spending in FY 2022 and in total through June 30, 2022, and planned future spending of allocated/awarded COVID-19 federal relief monies, as required by Laws 2021, Ch. 408, §54. This special report also provides Arizona Department of Education-reported spending in FY 2022 and in total through June 30, 2022, and planned future spending of the discretionary COVID-19 federal relief monies that it received, as required by the law. This information is included...

Since March 2020, early in the COVID-19 pandemic, and through September 2022, the federal government has allocated through various acts $77.8 billion to the State of Arizona and its local governments, businesses, and individuals for COVID-19 response and relief efforts. This special COVID-19 funding report presents information on the amounts, intended purposes, and recipients of those allocations. It also presents the results of our audit of the allocated monies Arizona State government directly spent and distributed during fiscal year 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.

Based on our audit of the State’s Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, we reported internal control weaknesses and instances of noncompliance over financial reporting. For example, the Department of Economic Security did not put all critical identity-verification or other anti-fraud measures in place before paying federal CARES Act unemployment insurance benefits and reported it paid over $4 billion in fraudulent identity theft unemployment insurance benefits claims through September 4, 2021, when the benefits ended.

The OIG plans to initiate a project to research and identify topics for potential audits and evaluations related to the EPA's response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

One objective of this audit is to evaluate elements within the System Security Plans to determine whether they provide details to allow the EPA to make decisions to secure its network during the COVID-19 pandemic.