Auditor General: Pennsylvania's pandemic business waiver program is subjective - TribLIVE

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During the statewide covid-19 shutdown and business closures this year, there was no consistency in granting waivers to those wishing to stay open, an ongoing investigation by the auditor general has found.

Auditor General Eugene DePasquale gave an update Tuesday on an audit started in May. The investigation so far has found that among the 42,380 waivers requested, more than 500 businesses received answers from the Department of Community & Economic Development (DCED) that later changed. The businesses were granted waivers that were later revoked, they were denied waivers that were later approved, or they received an answer only to be told later no waiver was necessary — and vice versa, he said.

“The waiver program appears to be a subjective process built on shifting sands of changing guidance,” DePasquale said.

While DCED made waiver approval decisions, the department told auditors that the criteria and guidelines were developed by the governor’s office, which changed throughout the pandemic and caused greater confusion.

DePasquale said there didn’t seem to be rhyme or reason as to how waivers were approved. When a waiver status changed, there was often no reason given for either the initial decision or the change. For the majority of the changes, DePasquale’s office said, DCED provided no explanation except to say that there had been some type of further review performed.

Some of the changes were reportedly made by the Gov. Tom Wolf’s office, but DePasquale said that is still being reviewed.

Wolf’s office did not immediately return a call for comment.

The audit also found at least 101 businesses submitted multiple waiver applications during the shutdown. They would often receive different responses for each application.

“What is clear so far in our review is that the waivers were not granted consistently,” DePasquale said. “That may not be news to business owners, who have been complaining about this from the very beginning.”

The auditor general’s office found the decision to grant a waiver seemed to be dependent on who was reviewing the request that day. Businesses that used buzzwords in their applications — words like “life-sustaining,” DePasquale said — seemed to get approved more often, as well as those who sought help from their local legislators. Auditors are combing through 574 emails, texts and other communications sent from legislators or lobbyists to DCED regarding business waiver applications, DePasquale said.

Small businesses and those who didn’t use the buzzwords — even when they were life-sustaining — were denied waivers without explanation, according to the audit. The audit found some businesses were forced to close, while identical businesses could open.

“This was not a level playing field for businesses across Pennsylvania,” DePasquale said.

There are still outstanding issues. Without clear explanations regarding the waiver decisions — or why some of those decisions were changed — it’s impossible to recommend ways to improve the criteria, DePasquale said. Auditors are also awaiting more information from Wolf’s office about the guidelines for considering waivers and how they were communicated to DCED, as well as any correspondence between the governor’s office and legislators regarding waiver decisions.

While the audit doesn’t focus on the long-term impacts of businesses being denied waivers, DePasquale said the inconsistencies have likely caused lasting damage. Improvements are needed in case the economy must shut down again in the future, he said.

“I find it almost impossible, that for businesses that should have been granted a waiver but weren’t, especially if they were smaller, I find it hard to believe that it wasn’t fatal,” he said.

Teghan Simonton is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Teghan at 724-226-4680, tsimonton@triblive.com or via Twitter .

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