Report to Congress: April 1 through September 30, 2021

Summary

The Pandemic Response Accountability Committee (PRAC) Semiannual Report to Congress for April 1 through September 30, 2021. It says the PRAC and its 22 Inspectors General oversee $5 trillion that funded more than 375 programs. A dated list of highlights includes a joint payment integrity alert with the Office of Management and Budget, Provider Relief Fund data on a $186.5 billion fund, and 110 state and local oversight reports added to its website. The PRAC launched the Pandemic Analytics Center of Excellence (the PACE) with American Rescue Plan Act funding and says its Fraud Task Force has 34 agents from nine OIGs. It also says it hired 33 new employees and quotes Michael E. Horowitz, PRAC Chair, comparing the $800 billion Paycheck Protection Program to the 2008-2009 financial crisis response.

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Report to Congress: April 1 through September 30, 2021

We're pleased to present the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee's (PRAC) Semiannual Report to Congress , which summarizes our accomplishments between April 1, 2021, and September 30, 2021. The PRAC and its 22 Inspectors General are committed to our extraordinary responsibility. We’re overseeing $5 trillion that’s funded more than 375 programs to help respond to the pandemic.

We continue to look for fraud, waste, and abuse, but also work to ensure the relief – like unemployment benefits or disaster relief loans − reaches those individuals and businesses it was intended to help.

Highlights from the report

Joint Alert on Payment Integrity

This alert, issued jointly with the Office of Management and Budget, identifies risk factors and mitigating strategies that agencies can consider when assessing impact to their respective programs.

April 21, 2021

Correctional Facilities Report

This capping report showed that some facilities were not designed to enable social distancing and staffing shortages made it difficult to implement strategies to reduce the spread of the virus. Read the full report.

May 12, 2021

Provider Relief Fund (PRF) Data

We added data to our website on this $186.5 billion fund, which reimburses hospitals and health care providers for expenses or lost revenue due to the pandemic. Explore the data here.

June 3, 2021

State & Local Oversight Reports

We added 110 reports from state and local watchdogs to our website so the public and policymakers can see a full inventory of what federal, state, and local agencies have found in pandemic oversight.

July 8, 2021

International Data Forum

This event included partners from the United Kingdom and Australia and discussed innovative approaches to data sharing and analytics to overcome pandemic oversight challenges. See some of the highlights in this infographic about the event.

July 1, 2021

Identity Fraud Working Group

This group brings together six Inspectors General to help reduce identity fraud in government programs, with an emphasis on assisting victims in recovering from what can be devastating impacts from identity fraud. See our identity theft timeline to learn more about the work.

July 15, 2021

Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) Loan Forgiveness Data

We created more data visualizations and added information on which businesses had their PPP loans forgiven, and for how much.

July 21, 2021

Congressional Testimony

Our Chair testified before the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure about the pandemic response, areas for improvement, and the impact of relief. Watch his testimony before the committee here .

July 29, 2021

Event Series on Relief in Underserved Communities

This series of events features experts from academia, think tanks, and non-profits who discuss the impact of pandemic relief and promote ideas that may improve the government’s response to this and future crises. Read more about the gaps with pandemic relief money reaching underserved communities .

August 12, 2021

Lessons Learned Report

This report highlighted issues, like self-certification, that our member Inspectors General found led to potential fraud in relief programs for unemployment benefits and small business loans. You can read the full report here.

August 31, 2021

"Just one pandemic relief program—the $800 billion Paycheck Protection Program (PPP)—is equal to the federal government’s entire response to the 2008-2009 financial crisis."

Michael E. Horowitz, PRAC Chair

We made it easier to track $5 trillion

We recently redesigned our website and built new interactive tools so that information is accessible and easy to understand. We created a new feature that breaks down data in short and simple stories . We’ve shared stories that define unfamiliar terms—like “prime recipient”—to the public and show how much states spent in emergency rental assistance or how many businesses had PPP loans forgiven. It’s part of our commitment to educating the public so they can follow how their tax dollars are spent. We issued a lessons learned report that summarized the work done across the pandemic oversight community so that policymakers are made aware of opportunities to improve the response to the pandemic.

We also began co-sponsoring a virtual event series with the National Academy for Public Administration. It features experts from academia, think tanks, and non-profits that discuss the impact of pandemic relief, like rental assistance , in underserved communities.

See all our transparency and data accomplishments in the full report (pdf).

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We set the PACE in the fight against fraud

With the funding Congress provided in the American Rescue Plan Act, we launched the Pandemic Analytics Center of Excellence (the PACE) to deliver analytic, audit, and investigative support to the oversight community. We’ve acquired dozens of public and non-public federal datasets and shared them with 29 IGs to help investigators find fraud across relief programs. We’ve brought in the best and brightest data science talent and have trained and placed 15 data science fellows with our members to help analyze pandemic relief data.

See all the ways we collaborated in the full report (pdf).

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We’ve got a Task Force with 34 agents investigating fraud

Our Fraud Task Force serves as a resource for the IG community by surging investigative resources into areas with the greatest need: pandemic loan fraud. We have 34 agents from nine OIGs working cases that would otherwise go unaddressed due to the scale of the fraud we are seeing. The idea behind our Task Force is to harness the expertise of the oversight community and attack fraud with every tool we have: criminal, civil, forfeitures of money and property, suspension and debarments.

The PRAC also works with our partners to identify emerging fraud risks created by the pandemic. During the reporting period, we partnered with the Housing & Urban Development (HUD) OIG to help protect more than $9 billion that went to the Community Development Block Grant and Emergency Solutions Grant programs.

Read more about our efforts to fight fraud and waste in the full report (pdf).

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We are building a diverse and innovative team

We hired 33 new employees, including a human resources specialist to streamline our administrative functions and an information technology support specialist to ensure the PRAC maximizes the technological advantages of a remote workforce.

We also opened a safe and modest office in Washington, DC that enables employees to collaborate when necessary.

Learn more about how we improved our organization in the full report.

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