Auditor general: Reviewing for fairness

In state Auditor General Eugene DePasquale’s mind, it’s all about making sure the playing field was level.

When Gov. Tom Wolf ordered that all “non-life-sustaining” businesses in Pennsylvania had to shut their doors to help stop the spread of COVID-19, he put in place a waiver process to allow business owners who felt they were unfairly shuttered to plead their case. More than 42,000 businesses filed application to reopen.

The process has been anything but smooth, with business owners complaining about long waits, a lack of transparency and a perceived unfairness over whose waiver requests were granted and whose were denied.

Two weeks ago, DePasquale announced he would be looking into the waiver process to ensure it was handled appropriately.

“We want to make sure the waiver process is as fair and transparent as possible,” he said Thursday morning during a press conference to update his audit of the system.

DePasquale said the audit his office is undertaking is important, not just to make sure things were done right in the past, but also to ensure the process is fair if it has to be used again.

“There is a possibility there could be another outbreak, a second waive,” he said.

He said his goal is to make sure business owners and all Pennsylvanians have trust in such a process, that they can rely on the fact that waivers were and will be issued fairly and that the process “truly reflects the delicate balance between protecting lives and protecting livelihoods.”

He said the audit will evaluate the criteria used to determine which businesses could open and which were forced to remain closed and review the process that was used to make those decisions and check to see if any undo outside influence played a part in decisions.

What type of training those reviewing the applications received is also being reviewed.

DePasquale said his team will hold an official audit meeting with officials from the state Department of Community and Economic Development on May 21.

The auditor general said the need for an audit became evident due to concerns voiced by businesses that were denied waivers. He said an initial alarm was raised through stories of business owners who felt they were treated differently than owners of very similar businesses.

“There might be a legitimate reason, but that’s something that comes up as a concern,” DePasquale said.

DePasquale said another are of interest is the amount of correspondence with DCED from lobbyist and legislators.

“It’s very possible no one reviewing the applications were aware of it,” he said. “We just want to make sure it doesn’t skew the playing field.”

A third area that the audit will take a deep look is reports of businesses having their waiver status changed at the 11th hour, in some cases the day before a list of waiver recipients was made public.

“I just want to know why the changes were made before I decide it it’s troubling or makes sense,” DePasquale said.

DePasquale said he couldn’t provide a date when the audit will be complete, but said the process should move fairly quickly.