Audit: Billions in pandemic relief funds in N.C. spent with limited monitoring PUBLISHED 10:13 AM ET May. 13, 2021 PUBLISHED 10:13 AM EDT May. 13, 2021
SHARE
North Carolina sent out billions of dollars to help inject money into the economy during the coronavirus pandemic last year. But the state did not monitor how companies were using those funds, leaving openings for people to misuse the money, according to a new audit.
The federal CARES Act gave $3.6 billion in relief funding to North Carolina, but most of that was distributed with limited monitoring and without making sure the recipients could actually measure results from the funding, the audit found.
Friday, May 14, 2021
First, the good news: every municipality in North Carolina is eligible to receive a large cash infusion, up to 75% of its budget, from the American Rescue Plan (ARP).
Now, the less than good news: all municipalities, other than a handful of metropolitan cities with populations over 50,000, should be working
May 18, 2021, or perhaps on a slightly later date. Metropolitan cities and other governments can apply directly on the U.S. Treasury portal.
Even though a municipality s governing body probably has not yet voted to affirmatively accept ARP funds, and even though plans for using these funds must still be made, and even though the rules are unclear and will probably change, each non-metropolitan municipality should work with NC PRO on this administrative contracting checklist to be sure it is prepared to receive the ARP funds.
NC failed to ensure $3.1B in federal COVID-19 relief funds were properly spent, audit says (Source: HNN) By CBS 17 Digital Desk | May 13, 2021 at 3:26 PM EDT - Updated May 13 at 3:26 PM
RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) – North Carolina did not perform the necessary monitoring to ensure $3.1 billion in federal COVID-19 relief funds were spent properly, according to an audit released Thursday.
State Auditor Beth Wood said her office found that the North Carolina Pandemic Recovery Office waited until November to independently verify spending from the CARES Act funds.
“As a result, there was an increased risk that recipients could have misused the finds without the misuse being detected and corrected timely,” the audit says.