Tag Archives: Office of the State Comptroller
NJ fishermen told they shouldn’t have received $7M in COVID aid, so give it back
Over three dozen New Jersey fishery-related businesses are being asked to return about $7 million in federal COVID-19 funds that was doled out by the state Department of Environmental Protection, the Office of the State Comptroller said. That number represents 49% of the money that the DEP awarded to fishery businesses for relief money during the peak of the pandemic. The money came out of the CARES Act Marine Fisheries Assistance Grant Program, administered by DEP. The state was given about $14.4 million out of $300 million that the federal government divvied up between 32 states, commonwealths and tribes in the act. It was intended to provide money to fisheries that lost revenue during the height of the pandemic. To qualify, applicants must have experienced at least a 35% loss between March and June of 2020. Video, >click to read< 07:51
10 fisheries in N.J. may have wrongly received millions in pandemic money
In its first report detailing the waste, fraud and abuse of the distribution of federal COVID funds, a state watchdog agency said nearly $2.4 million in CARES Act funding may have been improperly paid out to fisheries in New Jersey. The Office of the State Comptroller (OSC), which is tasked with tracking the distribution of federal COVID funding, said 10 marine fisheries in New Jersey received more money than they lost because of the pandemic in 2020. The state report did not name the fisheries that received the funds. >click to read< 19:08
