We're pleased to present the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee's (PRAC) Semiannual Report to Congress, which highlights our accomplishments between April 1, 2023, and September 30, 2023. It has now been more than three years since the PRAC’s creation, and we, along with our 20 Office of Inspector General (OIG) partners, remain committed to the mission of effectively overseeing more than $5 trillion in federal pandemic relief funds.
This report demonstrates the impact of our innovative approach to overseeing unprecedented levels of emergency government spending and investigating pandemic relief fraud. During the reporting period, we worked with our OIG partners to issue five oversight reports that provided valuable insights across a broad range of pandemic-related issues, such as gaps in pandemic spending data in six communities across the country and the pandemic’s impact on the federal contract and grants workforces.
Here’s a summary of our accomplishments from April 1, 2023, to September 30, 2023.
“The PRAC has created a blueprint for conducting effective oversight of this extraordinary amount of emergency relief spending by coordinating with our oversight partners at all levels of government and leveraging data analytics to better prevent and detect fraud. This model should be retained, replicated, and broadened to bolster oversight of future emergency and non-emergency federal expenditures."
Michael E. Horowitz, PRAC Chair
We demonstrated how using the Do Not Pay system can strengthen program integrity.
We issued a Fraud Alert Follow-Up that identified 3,222 Social Security Numbers (SSNs) used on Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan (COVID-19 EIDL) applications belonging to deceased individuals. Some of these resulted in the disbursement of $38 million in improper or fraudulent payments.
Read more about this potential fraud in the full report (pdf).
We identified gaps in pandemic spending data.
Through our review of federal pandemic spending in six communities across the United States, we identified critical data gaps that hinder oversight, transparency, and stakeholders’ ability to understand how funds were used and if they achieved the intended impact.
We leveraged the insights of federal agencies.
We surveyed 29 federal agencies to assess whether contracts and grants personnel received adequate training, technology support, and other resources during the pandemic.
