Coronavirus Relief Fund Notice of Recommended Recoupment – Government of Guam
Summary
In this October 6, 2026 notice, the Treasury Office of Inspector General recommends that the Office of Capital Access book $2,040,859 as a debt of the Government of Guam and recoup it, as 42 U.S.C. 801(f)(2) mandates. Treasury issued a $117,968,258 Coronavirus Relief Fund payment to Guam, and a desk review by an independent public accounting firm identified total questioned costs of $3,962,502. The amount still outstanding is unsupported costs from Guam's use of the funds to reimburse its departments for credit card fees incurred after encouraging businesses to make tax payments online during the pandemic. The OIG says Guam gave no written response or adequate documentation, and it reads that failure as acknowledgement that Guam cannot show the money went to eligible purposes. Treasury may also report Guam in SAM.gov, which may affect its future federal funding.
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DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY
W ASHINGTON, D.C. 20220
OFFICE OF
INSPECTOR GENERAL October 6, 2026
OIG-27-012
MEMORANDUM FOR JEFFREY W. STOUT, ACTING CHIEF PROGRAM
OFFICER, OFFICE OF CAPITAL ACCESS, DEPARTMENT
OF THE TREASURY
FROM: Pauletta P. Battle /s/
Assistant Inspector General for Audit
SUBJECT: Coronavirus Relief Fund Notice of Recommended
Recoupment – Government of Guam
Resources appropriated to the Department of the Treasury (Treasury) Office of
Inspector General (OIG) for the purposes of recoupment for this program are no
longer available. The Deputy Inspector General, exercising the delegated authorities
of the Inspector General, has determined that the Government of Guam has failed
to comply with 42 U.S.C. 801(d), and we therefore recommend that the Office of
Capital Access, in its role as the program office and on behalf of the Treasury,
book the identified amount as a debt of the entity and recoup the amount as
mandated in 42 U.S.C. 801(f)(2).
The following document is the OIG’s Notice of Recommended Recoupment. The
Government of Guam was given an opportunity to comment on a draft of the
Notice. The Government of Guam did not provide a written response. Our
evaluation of their lack of response is included in the Notice of Recommended
Recoupment.
cc: Michelle A. Dickerman, Deputy Assistant General Counsel, Department of
the Treasury
Thao P. Tran, Acting Chief Operating Officer, Office of Capital Access,
Department of the Treasury
Lilian R. Lowrey, Supervisory Grants Management Specialist, Department of
Treasury
Krystyna Ilagan, General Accounting Supervisor, Government of Guam
1
This Notice may contain information protected under the Privacy Act, 5 USC 552a.
DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY
W ASHINGTON, D.C. 20220
OFFICE OF
INSPECTOR GENERAL
Notice of Recommended Recoupment
Coronavirus Relief Fund Program
October 6, 2026
Recipient: Government of Guam
Point of Contact: Krystyna Ilagan, General Accounting Supervisor
Mailing Address: 590 S Marine Corps Drive, Suite 219, ITC Building Tamuning, GU,
96913
Recipient Point of Contact Phone Number and Email Address: (b) (6) ;
Krystyna.Ilagan@doa.guam.gov (CC: Theresa Rivers,
Theresa.Rivers@doa.guam.gov)
Federal Award Identification Numbers: SLT0014; SLT0071
Supplier Identification Numbers: 778904292SLT
Recommended Recoupment Amount: $2,040,859
Background/Legal Authority
Section 601 of the Social Security Act, as added by section 5001(a) of Division A,
Title V of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act),1
and codified at 42 U.S.C. 801, established the Coronavirus Relief Fund (CRF) and
appropriated $150 billion for making payments to States, Tribal governments, units
of local government, the District of Columbia, and U.S. Territories. Payments were
to be made in accordance with requirements outlined in 42 U.S.C. 801(a)(2), of
which $3 billion is reserved for payments to the District of Columbia and U.S.
Territories and $8 billion is reserved for payments to Tribal governments. In
accordance with 42 U.S.C. 801(c)(2)(A), no State was to receive a payment of
less than $1.25 billion.
1
P.L. 116-136 (March 27, 2020)
2
This Notice may contain information protected under the Privacy Act, 5 USC 552a.
The CRF statute at 42 U.S.C. 801(d) stipulated that CRF recipients may only use
the CRF award funds to cover costs that:
1. were necessary expenditures incurred due to the public health emergency
with respect to the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID–19);
2. were not accounted for in the government’s budget most recently approved
as of March 27, 2020; and
3. were incurred during the period that began on March 1, 2020, and ended on
December 31, 2021, for States, local governments, and Territories. In the
case of Tribal governments, were incurred during the period that began on
March 1, 2020, and ended on December 31, 2022 (covered period).
The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 extended the period for CRF recipients
to use CRF award funds for eligible expenses through December 31, 2021.2 In
accordance with Treasury’s Coronavirus Relief Fund Guidance (Guidance), 3
Treasury determined that, for a cost to be considered incurred within the covered
period, performance of services or delivery of goods must have occurred during the
covered period. In December 2021, Treasury revised its interpretation of when a
cost is considered incurred in light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic surges,
supply chain interruptions, and the resolution of litigation that delayed the payment
of CRF funds to certain tribes. In its revised guidance, Coronavirus Relief Fund
Revision to Guidance Regarding When a Cost is Considered Incurred, 4 Treasury
provides that a cost associated with a necessary expenditure incurred due to the
public health emergency shall be considered to have been incurred by
December 31, 2021, if the recipient has incurred an obligation with respect to such
cost by December 31, 2021. The period of performance end date for Tribal entities
was further extended to December 31, 2022. 5
Section 15011(b)(2) of the CARES Act required each covered recipient to submit to
Treasury and the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee, 6 no later than 10
2
Recipients were initially permitted to incur eligible costs using CRF award funds from
March 1, 2020, to December 30, 2020. Division N, Title X, Section 1001 of the Consolidated
Appropriations Act, 2021, Pub. L. No. 116-260 (December 27, 2020) extended the end of the
covered period for CRF expenditures from December 30, 2020 to December 31, 2021.
3
Treasury’s Coronavirus Relief Fund Guidance was published in the Federal Register on
January 15, 2021, at 86 FR 4182 and can also be found at
https://home.treasury.gov/system/files/136/CRF-Guidance-Federal-Register_2021-00827.pdf.
4
The Coronavirus Relief Fund Revision to Guidance Regarding When a Cost is Considered Incurred,
dated December 14, 2021, can be found at https://home.treasury.gov/system/files/136/CRF-
Guidance_Revision-Regarding-Cost-Incurred.pdf.
5
The State, Local, Tribal, and Territorial Fiscal Recovery, Infrastructure, and Disaster Relief
Flexibility Act included in Division LL, Section 104 of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023,
Pub. L. No. 117-328 (December 29, 2022)
6
Section 15011(a)(2) of the CARES Act, Pub. L. No. 116-136, defined a covered recipient as
“any entity that receives large covered funds and included any State, the District of Columbia,
and any territory or possession of the United States.”
3
This Notice may contain information protected under the Privacy Act, 5 USC 552a.
days after the end of each calendar quarter, a report that contained (1) the total
amount of large covered funds received from Treasury; 7,8 (2) the amount of large
covered funds received that were expended or obligated for each project or
activity; (3) a detailed list of all projects or activities for which large covered funds
were expended or obligated, including—(i) the name of the project or activity; (ii) a
description of the project or activity; and (iii) the estimated number of jobs created
or retained; and (4) detailed information on any level of subcontracts or subgrants
awarded by the covered recipient or its subcontractors or subgrantees to include
the data elements required to comply with the Federal Funding Accountability and
Transparency Act of 2006 allowing the aggregate reporting on awards below
$50,000 or to individuals, as prescribed by the Office of Management and Budget.
The CARES Act assigned the Department of the Treasury (Treasury) Office of
Inspector General (OIG) with responsibility for monitoring and oversight of the
receipt, disbursement, and use of CRF payments. Treasury OIG also was assigned
authority to recoup CRF funds in the event that it is determined that a CRF
recipient failed to comply with the use of funds requirements set forth as 42 U.S.C.
801(d). As part of this authority, if OIG determines that a CRF recipient failed to
comply with the use of funds requirements for CRF award funds in 42 U.S.C.
801(d), the amount equal to the amount of funds used in violation shall be booked
as a debt of such entity owed to the Federal Government. See 42 U.S.C. 801(f)(2).
Facts and Analysis
Treasury issued a $117,968,258 CRF payment to the Government of Guam
(Guam). Under a contract monitored by our office, a certified independent public
accounting firm (IPA), performed a desk review to evaluate Guam’s documentation
supporting its uses of CRF award funds as reported in the GrantSolutions 9 portal
and to assess the risk of unallowable use of funds. The IPA identified total
questioned costs of $3,962,502. 10 Specifically, the IPA found:
• Direct payments greater than or equal to $50,000 did not comply with the
CARES Act and Treasury’s Guidance. The IPA identified total questioned
7
Section 15010(a)(6) of the CARES Act, Pub. L. No. 116-136, defined covered funds as any
funds, including loans, that are made available in any form to any non-Federal entity, not
including an individual, under Public Laws 116-123, 127, and 136, as well as any other law
which primarily made appropriations for Coronavirus response and related activities.
8
Section 15011(a)(3) of the CARES Act, P.L. 116-136, defined large covered funds as “covered
funds that amount to more than $150,000.”
9
GrantSolutions, a grant and program management Federal shared service provider under the
United States Department of Health and Human Services, developed a customized and user-
friendly reporting solution to capture the use of CRF payments from prime recipients.
10
Treasury OIG, Desk Review of the Government of Guam’s Use of Coronavirus Relief Fund
Proceeds, OIG-CA-25-010 (December 2, 2024)
4
This Notice may contain information protected under the Privacy Act, 5 USC 552a.
costs of $122,765, which consisted of unsupported and ineligible
questioned costs of $122,032 and $733, respectively. The IPA found:
• unsupported and ineligible transactions totaling $50,733 related to a
small business assistance grant. For the unsupported transaction of
$50,000, Guam did not provide external disbursement support, to
include electronic funds transfers and cancelled checks, or the
equivalent to support the disbursements made by Guam to the small
business. For the ineligible transaction of $733, Guam did not provide
support to verify that the interruption for this business occurred due to
the COVID-19 pandemic;
• an unsupported transaction of $8,390 related to advertisements and
graphic design. Guam did not provide support to verify whether the
advertisements publicized the resumption of activities and steps taken
to ensure a safe experience due to the public health emergency;
• an unsupported transaction of $35,761 related to personal protective
equipment. Guam did not provide invoices for the items listed in the
general ledger detail to support the expenditures claimed; and
• an unsupported transaction of $27,881 related to utility bills charged
to other Guam departments. Guam did not provide documentation
showing Guam’s rationale in determining that these transactions were
related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Aggregate reporting less than $50,000 did not comply with the CARES Act
and Treasury’s Guidance. The IPA identified total unsupported questioned
costs of $2,092,378. The IPA found:
• unsupported transactions totaling $2,040,859 related to Guam’s use
of CRF award funds to reimburse agencies for amounts paid in credit
card fees incurred after encouraging businesses to make online tax
payments during the pandemic. Guam did not provide a listing of
waived online taxpayer credit card fee payments or any underlying
credit card or tax statements showing detailed credit card fee tax
charges that had been waived;
• unsupported transactions totaling $14,236 related to payroll expenses
for non-public health and safety personnel. Guam did not provide
adequate payroll documentation to recalculate the overtime/hazard pay
amounts; and
• unsupported transactions totaling $37,283 related to grants awarded
under Guam’s healthcare system stabilization grant program. Guam did
not provide documentation necessary to verify eligibility of these
payments against Guam's eligibility requirements, such as completed
5
This Notice may contain information protected under the Privacy Act, 5 USC 552a.
grant applications and other documentation reviewed by Guam to
confirm eligibility of the grant applicant and of this expenditure.
• Aggregate payments to individuals did not comply with the CARES Act and
Treasury’s Guidance. The IPA identified total unsupported questioned costs
of $1,747,359. The IPA found:
• unsupported transactions totaling $3,300 related to its disaster relief
program. Guam did not provide evidence that disaster relief hardship
recipients were receiving welfare; therefore, the IPA was unable to
verify the eligibility of the recipients;
• unsupported transactions totaling $4,534 related to substantially
dedicated payroll. 11 Guam did not provide documentation to verify that
the work performed was substantially dedicated to performing
COVID-19 related tasks and/or to recalculate overtime costs claimed in
the GrantSolutions portal; and
• unsupported transactions totaling $1,739,525 related to hotel
quarantine expenses incurred by Guam. For $1,503,964 of
$1,739,525, Guam did not provide a vacancy analysis to determine
the extent of any monitoring efforts that Guam may have performed
over these hotel transaction balances. For the remaining $235,561,
Guam did not provide any documentation to support the expenditures
related to reserved rooms for quarantine claimed within the
GrantSolutions portal.
Based on the work performed, the IPA recommended that Treasury OIG confirm if
the transactions noted as unsupported or ineligible expenditures can be supported.
If support cannot be provided, Treasury OIG should recoup the questioned costs or
request that the prime recipient provide support for replacement expenses, not
previously charged to its CRF award, that were incurred during the CRF award
period of performance. Treasury OIG personnel began outreach with Guam to
inform it of the initial total questioned costs of $3,962,502 as follows:
• On November 20, 2024, we issued the Draft Desk Review of the
Government of Guam’s Use of Coronavirus Relief Fund Proceeds for
technical review comments.
• On November 26, 2024, we held an exit conference and informed Guam
that we would be performing a follow-up to obtain documentation related to
the questioned costs.
11
Substantially dedicated payroll costs meant that personnel whose time was substantially
dedicated to responding to or mitigating COVID-19.
6
This Notice may contain information protected under the Privacy Act, 5 USC 552a.
• On December 2, 2024, we issued the Final Desk Review of the Government
of Guam's Use of Coronavirus Relief Fund proceeds.
• On April 28, 2025, Treasury OIG emailed a letter to Guam’s General
Accounting Supervisor, notifying her that all supporting documentation for
the questioned costs identified in the desk review memorandum must be
submitted to Treasury OIG no later than May 7, 2025.
• On April 30, 2025, Treasury OIG emailed Guam’s General Accounting
Supervisor, notifying her that due to the end of the performance period for
the CRF program, and limited staffing resources, Treasury OIG was no
longer able to provide the option of submitting other eligible expenditures,
not previously charged to CRF award, that were incurred during the period
of performance. Treasury OIG requested that the amount noted as ineligible
costs be voluntary returned to Treasury. Otherwise, those funds are subject
to recoupment.
• On May 7, 2025, Treasury OIG received 199 documents from Guam;
however, we determined that these documents lacked proper titles and
organizational structure. Also, Guam did not provide a crosswalk that align
documents provided to the questioned costs. Consequently, we were
unable to validate whether the documents provided would support the
questioned costs.
• On July 8, 2025, Treasury OIG emailed Guam’s General Accounting
Supervisor requesting a crosswalk that shows how the documentation
supports the questioned costs.
• On July 10, 2025, Guam’s Chief Financial Officer responded stating “given
the extensive nature of the documents requested and time period involved,
we need at least 2 weeks to collate, as we are also currently in the middle
of Gov Guam Financial Statements and Single Audit. In this regard, we are
requesting a due date of Wednesday, July 23, 2025.”
• On July 14, 2025, Treasury OIG emailed Guam’s Chief Financial Officer
stating that we would extend the due date to Friday, July 18, 2025. We
requested for Guam to provide a crosswalk to show how the documentation
Guam provided on May 7, 2025 supports the questioned costs noted in
each reporting category. We notified Guam that if we did not receive the
crosswalk by the due date, we will proceed with the Notice of Proposed
Recoupment.
7
This Notice may contain information protected under the Privacy Act, 5 USC 552a.
• On November 24, 2025, Treasury OIG emailed Guam’s Chief Financial
Officer and the General Accounting Supervisor notifying them that
$1,503,964 of the $1,747,359 “aggregate payments to individuals”
questioned costs had been resolved; therefore, the remaining $243,395 is
unresolved in that category. The IPA identified $1,503,964 in questioned
costs because Guam personnel did not perform a room vacancy analysis
over hotel transaction balances. The IPA was unable to determine the
reasonableness of the expenditure. Treasury determined and Treasury OIG
agreed that the costs associated with the unused hotel rooms used as
quarantine facilities were eligible Coronavirus Relief Fund expenditures
because the hotel rooms were reserved in an abundance of caution for
quarantining potential patients due to the unpredictability of the COVID
pandemic. We encouraged Guam to voluntarily return a total of $2,458,538
in questioned costs to Treasury no later than December 3, 2025.
• On December 4, 2025, Guam voluntarily returned $417,679 to Treasury.
The amount consisted of the following:
• $122,765, which consisted of unsupported and ineligible questioned
costs of $122,032 and $733 respectively, from the “direct payments
greater than or equal to $50,000” category;
• $51,519 of the total amount of $2,092,378 unsupported questioned
costs from the “aggregate reporting less than $50,000” category. This
amount included $14,236 related to payroll expenses for non-public
health and safety personnel and $37,283 related to grants awarded
under Guam’s healthcare system stabilization grant program; and
• $243,395, the remaining questioned costs from the “aggregate
payments to individuals” category.
The outstanding questioned costs of $2,040,859, from the “aggregate
reporting less than $50,000” category, is for unsupported questioned costs
related to Guam’s use of CRF award funds to reimburse its departments for
amounts paid in credit card fees incurred after encouraging businesses to
make tax payments online during the pandemic.
• On March 19, 2026, Treasury OIG emailed a Draft Notice of Proposed
Recoupment to Guam’s General Accounting Supervisor, notifying her that
Guam’s failure to provide documentation for the questioned costs as
acknowledgement that it is unable to demonstrate that it used the funds for
eligible CRF purposes and that these monies are accordingly subject to
8
This Notice may contain information protected under the Privacy Act, 5 USC 552a.
recoupment. We also advised the General Accounting Supervisor that if a
written response was not received by April 2, 2026, we would proceed
with recoupment. Treasury OIG has not received a written response or
adequate documentation from Guam.
Treasury OIG interprets Guam’s failure to provide adequate documentation for
these questioned costs as acknowledgement that it is unable to demonstrate that it
used the funds for eligible CRF purposes; and that these monies are accordingly
subject to recoupment.
Resources appropriated to Treasury OIG for the purposes of recoupment for this
program are no longer available. The Deputy Inspector General, exercising the
delegated authorities of the Inspector General, therefore recommends that the
Office of Capital Access, in its role as the program office and on behalf of the
Treasury, book the identified amount as a debt of the entity and recoup the amount
as mandated in 42 U.S.C. 801(f)(2).
In addition, Treasury may report Guam to SAM.gov in the
Responsibility/Qualification Reports (formerly known as Federal Awardee
Performance Integrity Information System), which may impact Guam’s future
eligibility to receive financial assistance from the federal government.
9
This Notice may contain information protected under the Privacy Act, 5 USC 552a.
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