March 25, 2022 — In its first report detailing the waste, fraud and abuse of the distribution of federal COVID funds, a state watchdog agency said nearly $2.4 million in CARES Act funding may have been improperly paid out to fisheries in New Jersey.
The Office of the State Comptroller (OSC), which is tasked with tracking the distribution of federal COVID funding, said 10 marine fisheries in New Jersey received more money than they lost because of the pandemic in 2020.
Guidelines for the program, administered by the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), require that fisheries could not be made “more than whole,” meaning fisheries could not receive more funds than their actual losses in 2020.
“Our report finds that DEP did not take adequate steps to address red flags and protect federal recovery funds from being misspent,” said Kevin Walsh, acting state comptroller. “Getting COVID funding out quickly was important, but more should have been done to protect the funds from fraud, waste, and abuse.”