Cape Cod Airport Used Pandemic Funds Appropriately, Review Finds

CAPE COD, MA — Cape Cod Gateway Airport's use of nearly $2o million in COVID-19 relief grants was above board, an audit from the state Inspector General's Office found.

In a recent letter, Inspector General Jeffrey Shapiro informed Cape Cod Gateway Airport officials that the Office of the Inspector General’s Internal Special Audit Unit (ISAU) found that the $19,597,399 in federal pandemic relief grants were used appropriately.

“The federal government provided trillions of dollars in grants to communities across the country in response to the global COVID-19 pandemic. This office, as well as many others, have identified numerous cases of fraud in the use of these funds,” Shapiro said.

“I think it is important for the public to know that, in most instances, those funds were used in the way the granting authority intended. The Office of the Inspector General found that the Cape Cod Gateway Airport’s use of the federal funds met the Federal Aviation Administration’s criteria for how the funds were to be used and the timeframe in which they were to be expended.”

In light of a recent vote to study relocating the airport to Joint Base Cape Cod, IG Shapiro suggested that airport management should determine whether FAA COVID-19 grant rules would require the airport to use local funding sources to reimburse the federal government for grants it received in the event that the airport is relocated.