Comptroller report details waste, abuse in Essex County COVID vaccination program

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The New Jersey Office of the State Comptroller this week released a scathing report about Essex County’s $40 million COVID-19 vaccination program.

The OSC’s COVID-19 Compliance and Oversight Project led the investigation. It was initiated by an anonymous tip that alleged fraud, waste and abuse in the program. OSC reviewed nearly $10 million in payments to 21 business vendors and interviewed multiple county officials and staff.

The vaccination program launched in December 2020, administering a total of 622,0016 doses through August 2023. According to the OSC, its investigation found a number of issues.

Topline findings from the report include:

• The county improperly awarded millions of dollars as emergency contracts, bypassing the competitive bid process.
• While using emergency procurement methods, the county failed to follow state and local requirements and improperly used multiyear emergency contracts in several cases.
• Essex County spent $17 million on staffing costs, but failed to implement an effective time-tracking system to verify that workers were working logged hours.
• Failed to enter into formal contracts with business vendors that laid out the terms required by the federal grants – potentially exposing these funds to recoupment by the federal government.
• Failed to properly oversee its vendors – pointing to 15 payments amounting to $871,211 made without invoices.
• Paid $1.29 million to East Orange-based Dunton Consulting firm for robocall services; OSC found many of the invoices were riddled with errors and used an unusual fee structure.
• Paid Dunton twice for the same $110,514 in 2021. Instead of demanding immediate repayment, the county negotiated repayment with Dunton and entered into an agreement that amounts to a zero-interest loan.

The full report, which is available here, also points to other examples of alleged misuse and waste.

“The government’s obligation to protect taxpayer funds doesn’t go away during an emergency,” said acting State Comptroller Kevin Walsh. “As we found in Essex County, overusing emergency contracts and failing to monitor vendors and implement basic financial controls increases the likelihood of fraud, waste, and abuse – risks that can and should be avoided.”

Selective reporting?

In a long statement, Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo Jr. vehemently pushed back against the report.

“The 17-page report criticizing Essex County’s COVID-19 vaccination program that was issued by Acting State Comptroller Kevin Walsh is unbalanced, unfair, and does not accurately depict Essex County’s response to the pandemic,” said DiVincenzo. “His findings amount to nothing more than a ‘do as I say, not as I do gotcha’ report pointing out issues with just a very small fraction of the funds spent by the county fighting COVID.”

DiVincenzo stressed that when the pandemic first began, there were many unknowns about the virus, which caused widespread panic and anxiety.

“Facts changed on a daily, if not hourly, basis,” said DiVincenzo. “During these uncertain times, I believe the swift and decisive actions we made helped calm the fears of residents and saved countless numbers of lives. The comptroller’s document is riddled with inaccuracies and omits topics that are relevant to explain the scope of the vaccine operation. It clearly does not include the entire testing operation that was held during the vaccination program, therefore basically eliminating over 400,000 individuals who were serviced.”

DiVincenzo acknowledged that the county was not perfect.

“But when any wrongdoing was identified, we acted swiftly. We did have a few people working at our vaccination sites who improperly took advantage of the situation,” DiVincenzo continued. “However, the report does not give us enough credit for our response. When we discovered ‘no-show’ employees, those people were fired immediately and, when possible, funds were repaid. And the vendor that the report identified as having been given a duplicate payment has commenced a repayment plan to the county.”

Navigating unknowns

Describing the situation as “unchartered waters,” DiVincenzo said that there was no playbook or any established guidelines on how to respond to the largest public health emergency we will ever experience.

“We were undertaking an operation – and all of its unexpected moving parts – that we never had before,” said DiVincenzo. “We were not operating in a controlled vacuum as the comptroller would make you think. Decisions had to be made quickly – and we made them. During those challenging times, it would have been nice to receive support from an outside source. The Comptroller’s Office, for instance, has a procurement division which is supposed to provide guidance to contracted units to ensure that the contracting process complies with applicable law.”

He closed his statement by applauding the hard work of the men and women who assisted the county with its pandemic response.

“While many people in government stayed home on the sidelines, the determination and willingness of our team to fight on the front lines of the pandemic helped Essex County be recognized on a national level as having one of the most responsive, efficient and well-run vaccination programs,” DiVincenzo concluded. “I am proud of how we helped save the lives of our residents and how we continue Putting Essex County First.”