State & Local Reports

What Was Performed? A financial statement audit of the Delaware Department of Natural Resource and Environmental Control’s Hazardous Substance Cleanup Fund for Fiscal Year 2021. WhyThis Engagement? In July 1990, the General Assembly passed legislation establishing the Delaware’s Hazardous Substance Cleanup Act. This act establishes standards to be followed to protect the public health and welfare of citizens and the environment of the state from releases of hazardous substances. This engagement was performed in accordance with 29 Del. C. § 2906. The fund generated over $8 million in revenue in FY21 but accrued liabilities of over $13 million. Although funding is adequate to meet DNREC’s annual expenditure plans and carryover funds exist, the cost of the future cleanup of orphaned sites exceeds the money available in the fund. What Was Found? It is my pleasure to report this audit contained an unmodified opinion1 on the financial statements. However, it contained one finding related to payroll internal controls. Six of 42 employee records sampled showed no evidence of supervisory review and approval prior to being paid. It is recommended that the fund’s management reinforce effective internal controls in accordance with the Budget and Accounting Policy Manual. Additionally, the supervisors of the six employees identified should be retrained in the proper use of the agency’s time-management software. The Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control, Hazardous Substance Cleanup Fund Financial Statement Audit for Fiscal Year ended June 30, 2021, can be found on our website at auditor.delaware.gov.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, claims for unemployment insurance (UI) benefits increased significantly, and many claimants experienced lengthy delays in receiving payments. The unprecedented volume of claims made delays inevitable, but the Georgia Department of Labor’s (GDOL) claims management and customer service systems were also factors. GDOL should continue planned improvements to both.

The primary objective of this report is to show Missouri's spending of federal assistance in the month of January 2022 for the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) emergency and the cumulative financial activity since the state began receiving funding in April 2020.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, claims for unemployment insurance (UI) benefits increased significantly, and many claimants experienced lengthy delays in receiving payments. The unprecedented volume of claims made delays inevitable, but the Georgia Department of Labor’s (GDOL) claims management and customer service systems were also factors. GDOL should continue planned improvements to both.

The primary objective of this report is to show Missouri's spending of federal assistance in the month of December 2021 for the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) emergency and the cumulative financial activity since the state began receiving funding in April 2020.

The objective of this audit was to determine whether the Department of Health is collecting necessary data to make informed decisions and promote strong infection prevention and control policies, and whether the data collected by the Department, including data reported to the public, is accurate and reliable. While the Department's duty is to act solely to promote public health, we determined that, instead of providing accurate and reliable information during a public health emergency, the Department conformed its presentation to the Executive's narrative, often presenting data in a manner that misled to the public.

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 COVID-19 Rapid Recovery loan recipients used funds in accordance with the 2020 COVID-19 Recovery 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.