(The Center Square) — A New Jersey county government broke procurement rules, overpaid contractors and failed to properly manage more than $40 million in funding for its COVID-19 vaccination program, according to a scathing new report by the state's fiscal watchdog.
The report by acting state Comptroller Kevin Walsh's office uncovered widespread "waste" and deficiencies, including lax oversight of spending and multiple violations of federal, state and local procurement rules in Essex County's vaccination program, which was funded with federal dollars.
"The government’s obligation to protect taxpayer funds doesn’t go away during an emergency," Walsh said in a statement. "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."
Essex County, one of New Jersey's most populous, was hard hit by the COVID-19 outbreak. The $40 million vaccination program, praised by Gov. Phil Murphy at the time, administered more than 620,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines from December 2020 through August 2023, according to the report.
The investigation, conducted as part of the Comptroller Office's COVID-19 Compliance and Oversight Project, was sparked by an anonymous tip alleging fraud, waste and abuse in the program. Investigators found the county government improperly awarded millions of dollars as emergency contracts, bypassing the competitive bidding process, according to Walsh's office.
The program's managers also failed to follow state and local requirements requiring them to document the need for emergency contracts and not having the County Commissioners review and approve each contract before distributing the funds.
Walsh's investigation also faulted county officials for failing to properly vet vendor payments. In one example, investigators found that 15 payments totaling $871,211 were made to vendors without invoices, "making it difficult to validate what goods or services were provided." From May 2020 through August 2021, the county also paid $1.29 million to the East Orange-based Dunton Consulting firm for robocall services.
The report noted that "many of the firm’s invoices were riddled with errors and used a fee structure that varied wildly, without explanation — all of the invoices were nonetheless paid."
Investigators also uncovered shoddy oversight of the estimated 800 individuals employed as part of the vaccination program, uncovering numerous irregularities such as individuals who held full-time jobs while working the same hours for the vaccination program. The program spent 17 million on payroll costs, according to Walsh's report.
One worker was paid $130,000 over 11 months, but investigators said interviews with county officials revealed that they "didn’t know who that person was or what the person did."
"Even after the County investigated and dismissed three workers who were found to be logging in hours when they were not at the vaccination sites, the county didn’t change its timekeeping system to close this loophole, nor did it initiate a broader investigation at that time," the report's authors wrote.
In response to the findings, Essex County Executive Joseph N. DiVincenzo dismissed the comptroller's report as a "gotcha" investigation focusing on a small portion of the COVID-19 vaccination funding. He also criticized Walsh for not doing enough to crack down on abuses during the pandemic.
"It would have been helpful to have them stand shoulder to shoulder with us back then rather than have them unfairly criticize our performance years later," DiVincenzo said in a statement.
