A top state official will be looking into how Pennsylvania handled COVID-19 business shutdown waivers.
In order to both take corrective actions now as well as be better prepared for the future, PA Auditor General Eugene DePasquale has announced that he will be auditing the business waiver program.
“The waiver process is managed by the Department of Community and Economic Development. The agency received more than 40,000 requests for waivers before the application period ended April 3rd,” DePasquale said.
Through this audit, DePasquale hopes to learn if more businesses could have remained safely open during the crisis and if the decision making process was fair to everyone involved.
Senate Republicans requested the audit earlier this week and according to DePasquale, this process will begin immediately and the findings will be made public upon conclusion.
“I spoke to the Governor and he made it very clear that his team will be fully open if there’s any information we need, he pledged that he would ” DePasquale said. “He wanted to make sure we do a thorough and independent review of this to make sure that businesses across Pennsylvania were treated fairly.”
Local State Representative Daryl Metcalfe along with over 40 other Republican colleagues recently sent a letter to the United States Attorney General requesting a Justice Department investigation into Wolf administration policies during the COVID-19 pandemic.