Alabama’s state auditors have identified $27.94 million in federal immunization-grant reimbursements that were either inadequately documented or unrelated to the grants’ purposes, exposing a major gap in the Alabama Department of Public Health’s oversight of pandemic-era funds.
The special report filed September 11 by the Alabama Department of Examiners of Public Accounts examined three federal grants and related contracts covering July 1, 2020, through June 30, 2025. The agency received and spent $135.76 million through those grants. Auditors said the disputed reimbursements represented about one-fifth of that reviewed total.
The finding does not mean every dollar was fraudulent or wasted. The report combines expenses that lacked enough support for auditors to judge whether they were reasonable and allowable with costs that auditors concluded were outside program rules. That distinction matters because the largest share—$16.3 million in administrative or partnership fees, salaries and benefits—was flagged primarily for insufficient documentation rather than automatically classified as an improper purchase.
Auditors expanded their testing after finding extensive problems in an initial contract review. They then examined 65 additional randomly selected subrecipients and vendors and increased testing when new issues appeared, making the report broader than a single-vendor dispute.
What auditors found
Auditors said reimbursement requests often listed only broad categories such as “materials and supplies” or “salaries and benefits,” without itemized invoices, employee-level payroll records or other detail. The report also found at least $1.49 million in equipment—including vehicles, defibrillators, a storage shed and a trailer—that was not entered on the department’s required inventory listing.
Several smaller categories were specifically described as unallowable. They included $146,177 in capital improvements, $5,610.87 in lobbying and campaign-related costs, $18,064.01 in unrelated fundraising, $934,091 in marketing, and $1.08 million in food, incentives and entertainment that did not align with vaccine outreach. The report also identified $117,516 in fringe benefits prohibited by subrecipient agreements.
The review was requested by State Health Officer Scott Harris after the department’s Office of Program Integrity detected problems in spring 2024. According to ABC 33/40’s original reporting and the department’s response, ADPH suspended the affected funding, ended contracts with identified subrecipients, referred some matters for further review and plans to seek repayment once the entities are confirmed.
What comes next
ADPH says it has added grant-management training, invoice sampling, more site visits, risk assessments and stronger reviews by financial staff. Those changes now face a practical test: identifying which expenses can be substantiated, recovering clearly unallowable payments and accounting for equipment bought with federal money.
The stakes extend beyond this closed set of pandemic grants. ADPH describes itself in its 2025 annual report and program overview as the state’s primary public-health agency, administering statewide disease prevention, health coverage and emergency programs. The examiners concluded that weak controls exposed the department to losses and said tighter oversight is necessary to protect future public funds.
