The audit found that approximately half of the CARES 2 grant awardees were not eligible to receive a grant based on the terms of the contract between the Ulster County Economic Development Alliance (UCEDA) and Ulster County. The audit also found that:
- The language within the contract was unclear.
- Inaccurate information with respect to the program’s eligibility requirements was communicated to the public.
- Ineligible applications were provided to the scoring committee.
- There were errors in the final aggregation of all the data to determine the scores for all the applications.
These findings, as well as previous governance and financial management issues at the UCEDA highlighted by the Comptroller’s office lead us to conclude that it would not be prudent to extend additional grant funding for the UCEDA at this time.
