The United States' Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has "persistent deficiencies" in its ability to prepare for and respond to public health emergencies, the U.S. congressional watchdog warned in a report released on January 27, citing concerns raised by the COVID-19 pandemic.

HHS is at "high risk" of mismanaging a future crisis, the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the congressional auditing agency, said, noting that the department had failed to implement some previously made recommendations to improve its pandemic response.

The report said that well beyond the pandemic, there are various threats that underscore the need for being prepared.

"As devastating as the COVID-19 pandemic has been, more frequent extreme weather events, new viruses, and bad actors who threaten to cause intentional harm loom, making the deficiencies GAO has identified particularly concerning," it said. "Not being sufficiently prepared for a range of public health emergencies can also negatively affect the time and resources needed to achieve full recovery."

As one example of the lack of preparedness by HHS, the GAO said that it had warned about shortages of COVID-19 tests beginning in September 2020 and then recommended in January last year that HHS develop a comprehensive national testing strategy.

In its response in May 2021, HHS told the watchdog it would provide a document stating its plans. "However, to date, HHS has not provided this document," the GAO report said.

The GAO report also found shortcomings in the COVID-19 responses of the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Treasury.

For example, the GAO said the Treasury's failure to carry out a payment review and audits process for the Emergency Rental Assistance (ERA) programs would cause overpayments to grantees that might be impossible to recover.

The $46.55 billion ERA program was designed to assist landlords and tenant households with rent payments, utility bills and other housing-related expenses, and the Treasury had disbursed nearly $38 billion of the fund. 

The GAO also said that multiple plans administered by the Food and Nutrition Service within the Department of Agriculture that were supposed to guide its nutrition assistance programs for children during emergencies are outdated. 

The report is the ninth the GAO has issued on COVID-19 relief. It has made 246 recommendations for improvement, but only 40 had been fully implemented and 54 partially implemented as of December 31, 2021. The GAO also raised four matters for congressional consideration, three of which remain open.

The United States has had the world's largest official death toll from the coronavirus pandemic, with over 915,000 recorded deaths. The total number of cases stands at over 77 million, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

(With in put from Reuters)