WV Senate Committee on Finance Chair Requests Federal Investigation into Gov.'s Use of COVID Funds
March 22, 2023
Mountaineer News
WV Fund Allocations
CHARLESTON, WV (Mountaineer News) - The United States Office of Inspector General has been requested by the chair of West Virginia’s Senate Committee on Finance to investigate the usage of $28.3 million in coronavirus recovery funds by Governor Jim Justice, which included a $10 million transfer to Marshall University for its baseball field.
The funds were obtained from the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act. They were moved to the Department of Corrections in the name of coronavirus relief, with the governor’s counsel claiming that it was compensating the department for lost revenue during the pandemic. Subsequently, the funds were sent to Justice’s donations and charities account, which had never before provided funding to the Department of Corrections.
Justice then transferred the funds to Marshall University for a $23 million baseball field project. In a letter to the Office of Inspector General, Sen. Eric Tarr, R-Putnam, who led a hearing into the matter in February, requested an inquiry into whether Justice “grossly misappropriated and misused” the funds on non-COVID related expenses, in violation of federal laws or ethical standards, and whether it would be subject to clawback in the future for improper application.
The letter also included details of the information revealed at the hearing, as well as emails and documents regarding the fund transfer. J. Berkeley Bentley, General Counsel for Justice, had previously stated during the hearing that the $28.3 million of CARES Act funds had been moved to a different fund before the CARES Act deadline, stating that “It’s no longer CARES, but the money is still available for lawful purposes.” However, Tarr’s letter raised questions about whether this claim was accurate or had been approved by the federal government.
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