MADISON — Joint Legislative Audit Co-Chairs Senator Eric Wimberger (R-Green Bay) and Representative Robert Wittke (R-Racine) released the following statement in response to audit report 23-6 relating to the Department of Health Services’ (DHS) administration of certain supplemental federal funds.
“There is a consistent theme that Governor Evers’ administration mismanaged federal COVID relief funds,” said Wimberger. “We learned today that DHS awarded grants based on lost income, but they never verified if grant recipients actually lost income. In times like the pandemic when resources are flooding our state, we should expect to be able to point back and know exactly what we accomplished with that funding.”
“The glaring concern in this report is NOT that millions of dollars were spent to purchase property and provide grants in the midst of a health emergency, it is that no documentation or plan is in place to account for the decisions made by the department. The audit should be viewed as a tool for improvement; we can’t learn without documentation or plans,” stated Wittke.
In 2022, the Joint Legislative Audit Committee approved a scope that directed the Legislative Audit Bureau (LAB) to look into the state’s administration of supplemental federal funding received in response to the COVID public health emergency. Audit report 23-6 is one of multiple audits released by the LAB in response to this scope statement and is focused the Provider Payment Program, Ventilator Stewardship Program and program integrity efforts conducted by DHS’s Office of the Inspector General.
