How does PRAC work with municipalities prior to a program’s start to help ensure compliance with requirements for federal pandemic funding?

The Pandemic Response Accountability Committee (“PRAC”) website includes many resources that municipalities can reference when establishing and improving their compliance programs, including Inspectors General contact information, a complaint hotline for reporting fraud, and other tools.

PRAC was established by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, Economic Security Act (“CARES Act”)[1] to promote transparency and coordinate oversight of pandemic relief funds. PRAC currently oversees over $5 trillion in federal funding including:

• CARES Act,
• Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement Act,
• Families First Coronavirus Response Act,
• Coronavirus Preparedness and Response Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2020,
• Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2021, and
• American Rescue Plan Act (“ARP”) of 2021.[2]

The committee is comprised of 21 offices of the Federal Inspector General.[3]

PRAC acts as a resource to municipalities and the public; the PRAC website includes a page called “State and Local Oversight Professionals: Connect with us.”[4] On this page, municipalities will find helpful resources such as:

• A link to a reports library  that contains over 200 COVID-19 related audit reports prepared by state and local oversight agencies that provide valuable lessons learned in connection with the use of COVID-19 federal grant funds;
• A complaint hotline to report potential fraud, waste, abuse, or mismanagement of federal funding related to the pandemic response;
• A list of Federal Inspectors General and their contact information;
• An email address to communicate with PRAC if a municipality would like assistance coordinating with an investigative point of contact: prac-slhl [at] cigie.gov (prac-slhl[at]cigie[dot]gov); and
• An email address to communicate with PRAC if a municipality would like assistance coordinating oversight: pandemic.reports [at] cigie.gov (pandemic[dot]reports[at]cigie[dot]gov).

The PRAC website also includes a “State & Local Information”[5] page, that provides more tailored guidance per jurisdiction, including:

• A link to COVID-19 related information for each U.S. state and Puerto Rico, including  statistics on COVID-19 cases, available financial assistance, and vaccination and testing locations;
• Tools and resources for state and local oversight professionals; for example, PRAC provided the “Agile Products Toolkit”  to help oversight agencies address concerns of an increased risk of fraud and misuse given the amount of money and speed with which COVID-19 funds were dispersed; and
• Numerous links showing how state and local governments are spending grant funds; for example, PRAC highlighted how six local and state government agencies are using money to experiment with new pilot programs that tackle issues arising from the pandemic.

Municipalities can visit the PRAC homepage for more information on how PRAC can assist with program compliance.[6]

Last updated: March 3, 2023