Opioid settlement grant recipients await delayed funding amid mass audits and outside consultancy evaluations.
After the State Auditor’s office flagged nonprofit Code Purple for fraudulent activity in June, Attorney General Kathy Jennings recommended putting an indefinite freeze on distributing any opioid abatement funds.
Despite this recommendation, the Behavioral Health Consortium approved $1.9 million in bridge funding for those who had already received grants in the past.
That decision was made in July, and director of communications for grant recipient atTAcK addiction Jill Fredel says over the past four weeks, there’s been a lack of communication about when the grants would be distributed.
“At the time, the Attorney General's office said ‘we're working on some clawback language in the contracts, but we should be done with that soon.’ So that was July 29th. Today is August 29th, and we still don't have the funding.”
Fredel says they intend to use the $75,000 award to target addiction resource messaging to college students.
But she explains time is of the essence for this project because it’s back to school season, which she told Prescription Opioid Settlement Distribution Commission Executive Director Susan Holloway in an email.
“I said, ‘if this funding is not going to come through for whatever reason, please alert the potential grantees so we could apply for other grants or potentially use other funding.’”
Fredel says she did get a response from Holloway Wednesday saying the funding would be distributed by the end of the week, but she isn’t getting her hopes up.
The Department of Justice is currently investigating Code Purple and attempting to clawback $290,000 in distributed funds, and the State Auditor's Office is auditing 12 additional settlement grant recipients.
Outside consultancy Social Contract is also in the process of evaluating the commission's grant distribution process. Jennings said there are two reports expected — one in August and one in September.
