An online expense tracker has been released by the State Auditors office to offer additional transparency as the state spends more than one billion dollars in federal CARES Act money. State legislators have allocated most of that money to several state agencies, but only around 167 million has been spent. State Auditor Shad White says spending is bound by state and federal statutes, and some agencies are still working towards pushing their money out. "Not only do you have a lot of money flowing, a lot of rules to follow, but you've also got a deadline there too. So it makes things pretty complicated both for the people administering this money, the people pushing this money out the door, and for us on the audit end, the auditors," says White.
White says he isn't concerned about delayed spending, but if funds are left untouched by the end of December legislators will have to reappropriate the funds for faster spending or risk sending them back to the federal government.
Different departments have different rules and regulations surrounding CARES Act funding. In July, legislators directed 150 million dollars in CARES Act funds to The Mississippi Department of Education to be spent specifically on technologies and lesson plans for distance learning or supplies to make schools safer. State Senator Dennis DeBar Jr. authored the legislation outlining spending guidelines for MDE. "The main priority was to ensure that each child had a device, that way they can complete their school work in whatever fashion that their district decided to proceed whether it be a hot-spot or a thumb drive or whatever the case may be," says DeBar. "I don't think it's too restrictive, I think it's a good start on a process that we need to continually improve on."
The auditor's office will update the online spending tracker about every two weeks.
