PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — A newly released review of the Wolf administration’s 2020 waiver process, which allowed some businesses to reopen during the COVID-19 shutdown, found the process was “flawed” and “unevenly administered.”
On March 19, 2020, the governor ordered non-life-sustaining businesses to close to help slow the spread of COVID-19. However, businesses could apply for a waiver to stay open.
Pennsylvania Auditor General Timothy DeFoor acknowledged that the pandemic was unprecedented and presented unique challenges that needed on-the-fly solutions. But in his review, he found the waiver process to be confusing and inconsistent.
“[It was] a flawed process that provided inconsistent answers to business owners and caused confusion,” he said.
One instance of confusion: DeFoor said one-third of the granted waivers his team reviewed were for businesses that didn’t even need to apply for a waiver. Those businesses actually fell under the life-sustaining category and didn’t have to close at all.
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“That alone is strong evidence that business owners were confused by the state’s guidance on life-sustaining businesses,” he added. “These questionable decisions had real-life negative consequences to businesses that should have been able to operate, but instead were told they had to close.”
The Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development reviewed about 42,000 applications and granted about 7,000 last year. DeFoor said of the 150 applications his office closely reviewed, auditors found 45 that were questionable, noting the subjectivity that appeared to go into the decision.
DeFoor said the audit did not find any cases where outside influence, like a lobbyist or an acquaintance with someone on the inside, had any effect on getting a waiver granted. But, he said, it may have led to a faster response.
Confusion also stemmed from the state’s official guidance, which changed about 20 times in the two months after the order was first issued in March 2020.
And, five different versions of the waiver application were posted online between March 20 and April 3 — the day the application window closed.
Among the findings, the report said state officials should limit the number of changes in guidance, decisions should be subject to a second reviewer, and an evaluation of decisions for businesses within the same industries should be done to ensure consistency.
DeFoor, a Republican, said this review is important in the case that the state is ever faced with a similar circumstance, and he stressed that his report is not political.
“This process should be reformed before anything like this is ever used again.”
