Tracking Pandemic Relief Funds that Went to Local Communities Reveals Persistent Data Gaps and Data Reliability Issues

The PRAC along with 10 of our member Offices of Inspectors General began a case study-based review, in part, to learn more about how much pandemic relief funding went to recipients within six randomly selected communities. Using a combination of federal, state, and local data sources, we identified that 10 federal agencies provided approximately $2.65 billion in pandemic relief funds to the six communities through approximately 89 pandemic relief programs and subprograms during the first 18 months of the pandemic (March 2020 through September 2021). We also found that tracking pandemic funds to the community level required the use of multiple non-public federal, state, and local data systems. In addition, we found that data collection and system limitations at the federal, state, and local levels impacted our efforts to obtain consistent data or data reports. This is the first in a series of reports to be issued under this review.