Oversight failures by state officials resulted in the misallocation of over $29 million in federal pandemic relief funds that may now have to be repaid by taxpayers, according to Oklahoma Auditor & Inspector Cindy Byrd. Byrd’s office on Tuesday released an audit report (pdf) that looked into around $14 billion in Oklahoma state spending in fiscal…

Close to 80 percent of Canada’s small businesses need extra time to repay emergency pandemic relief loans without interest charges, according to the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB). CFIB said in a May 10 news release that the deadline to repay the Canada Emergency Business Account (CEBA) loan on an interest-free basis expires by…

After conducting an investigation, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) said it is not convinced of the “validity” of a radio show caller who claimed to be an agency employee that fraudulently received COVID benefits. On Feb. 9, the Alex Pierson Show was contacted live on the air by a male caller claiming to be a…

Tips from informants have led the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) to recover over $26 million in penalties and incorrect payments under the federal government’s costliest pandemic relief program—the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS). “Between April 2020 and last November 25 the Agency processed 1,986 leads from the public,” cabinet wrote in an Inquiry of Ministry…

COVID-19, pandemic relief, and China’s human rights issues are among the top 10 issues that Canadians have contacted the prime minister about since Jan. 1, 2020, a document submitted to the House of Commons shows. The document, a copy of which was obtained by The Epoch Times, was issued by the government in response to…

The Liberal government’s approach to COVID-19 and climate change, seal hunting, and the governor general are some of the topics Canadians write most about to the prime minister, a document submitted on Jan. 30 to the House of Commons shows. The document, a copy of which was obtained by The Epoch Times, was issued by…

Billions of dollars in federal pandemic relief was sent to hospitals throughout the United States that did not need the funding, while other hospitals failed to meet their needs, according to The Wall Street Journal. Washington distributed pandemic aid by using average hospital revenue as a proxy for size in order to calculate need, while…

The Federal Reserve is on an inflation-busting campaign. During the September meeting of the Fed’s policy-making arm, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), the committee’s members raised the benchmark federal funds rate by 75 basis points, to a target range of 3.0–3.25 percent, the highest level since 2008.   According to the dot-plot—a survey of…

The tax season of 2022 has been quite chaotic for the Internal Revenue Service due the “significant challenges,” including staffing shortages and backlogs of tax returns. Because of the pandemic, the IRS faced an unprecedented amount of work during the 2021 filing season. The agency started this year with a backlog of more than 8.4…

SANTA ANA, Calif.—Orange County microbusinesses, like street vendors and mom-and-pop shops, who began operating before 2020 and were “significantly” impacted by the COVD-19 pandemic can now apply for a one-time $2,500 grant until mid-March. “These are the people that were left behind in those other funding opportunities, and we’re really trying to make an effort…