Bass, Berry & Sims attorneys Stewart Kameen and Lisa Rivera examined the potential enterprise-wide risk and compliance issues that stem from receipt of COVID-19 relief funds. Since the start of the pandemic, the U.S. government made available more than $5 trillion in relief funding for individuals and companies financially impacted by the global public health emergency (PHE). As the authors point out, receipt of these funds comes with numerous attestations, various terms and conditions, and other reporting requirements.
For any entity that accepted relief funds, Stewart and Lisa recommend that “enterprise risk management associated with the PHE should be well under way, and now is the time to bolster compliance measures to ensure that enterprise use and management of PHE-related funds is consistent with the myriad requirements.”
“With government-wide enforcement just ramping up, now is the time for enterprise-wide compliance measures to prepare for the post-PHE enforcement environment,” warn the authors.
The full article, “The U.S. Government’s Enterprise-Wide Approach to the Public Health Emergency and Related Enforcement Will Require Stakeholders to Address Enterprise-Wide Risk and Compliance Issues,” was published by AHLA’s Enterprise Risk Management Task Force on May 26 and is available online (subscription required).