We check the report against the records.
The agreement makes the annual report the proof of compliance, so we test that report against the ledger behind it.
Restricted money, from two national settlements
The settlements pay New Jersey counties and municipalities every year. The money is not general revenue. It funds opioid remediation as Exhibit E defines it, and at least 85 percent of the payments must go there. The New Jersey agreement is stricter. It caps administrative expenses at 5 percent of a local share and requires every other dollar to go to approved purposes. A subdivision that spends outside remediation has to identify the amounts and report how the money was used, and that reporting is meant to be public.
- Settling distributors
- McKesson, Cardinal Health, AmerisourceBergen
- Executed
- March 25, 2022
- Permitted use
- Opioid Remediation, as defined by Exhibit E
- Remediation floor
- at least 85 percent of payments
- Spending outside it
- identify the amounts and report the use, publicly
- Settling defendant
- Janssen Pharmaceuticals and Johnson and Johnson
- Permitted use
- Opioid Remediation, as defined by Exhibit E
- Approved uses list
- Exhibit E, Schedule B, categories A through L
- New Jersey route
- the State and its participating subdivisions
Both agreements are published in full on this site, with the page anchors the citations use.
Six clauses decide what this audit does
Each excerpt is verbatim. The section and the page sit beside it. The plain reading is ours.
01Section D(2)State Subdivision AgreementPDF p. 5
All Opioid Funds, except those allocated to payment of administrative expenses ... shall be utilized in a manner consistent with the "Approved Purposes" definition. Compliance with this requirement shall be verified through reporting, as set out in Section E and the National Opioid Litigation Resolutions.
The money is restricted, and the report is how the restriction gets checked.
02Section D(7)State Subdivision AgreementPDF p. 6
Opioid Funds shall be used to supplement and shall not supplant federal, state, county or municipal funds, as the case may be, that otherwise would have been used for Approved Purposes, and no amount of such moneys shall be used to reimburse the State or any of its counties or municipalities for past expenditures ...
Settlement money has to add to what a government already spends. It cannot replace it.
03Section F(3)State Subdivision AgreementPDF p. 9
maintain, for a period of at least five years, records of abatement expenditures and documents underlying those expenditures, so that it can be verified that funds are being or have been utilized in a manner consistent with the "Approved Purposes" definition
Every town keeps the underlying records for five years so the spending can be verified.
04Section F(4)State Subdivision AgreementPDF p. 9
At least annually, by September 1 of each year, each Region shall provide to the State a report detailing for the preceding state fiscal year, in the manner and form prescribed by the State ... Each Participating Local Government within a Region shall prepare its own report detailing the information required above in the manner and form prescribed by the State.
Each town files its own annual report, on the form the State prescribes, by September 1.
05Section F(6)State Subdivision AgreementPDF p. 9
The expenditure of funds pursuant to this Agreement shall be subject to oversight by the State Comptroller as provided by law.
The State Comptroller can examine how a town spent the money.
06Section V.B.2Distributor Settlement AgreementPDF p. 31
If, at any time, a Settling State or a Participating Subdivision set forth on Exhibit G uses any monies from the Settlement Fund for a purpose that does not qualify as Opioid Remediation, such Settling State or Participating Subdivision shall identify such amounts and report to the Settlement Fund Administrator and the Settling Distributors how such funds were used ... It is the intent of the Parties that the reporting under this Section V.B.2 shall be available to the public.
A town that spends outside remediation has to name the amounts and report the use, in public.
Source. Memorandum of Agreement between the State of New Jersey and local governments on opioid litigation recoveries, executed for the State on January 28, 2022, and the Final Distributor Settlement Agreement of March 25, 2022. Page numbers are to the PDF as produced.
The agreement names the annual report as the way compliance is verified, and the records as what it is verified against. We compare the two.
Twelve categories, and the test beyond them
Exhibit E, Schedule B, is the list, and the agreement calls it non exhaustive. A payment conforms when it is a listed use, or when it is part of a documented, evidence based or evidence informed program that mitigates the opioid epidemic. Either way it must add to existing spending, not replace it. The town carries the burden of showing the program. Our findings rest first on a false label or report, then on supplantation, then on a missing evidence based program. A use the list does not name is never the whole finding.
Part one, treatment
A to E- A
Treat opioid use disorder
Treatment for opioid use disorder, including every form of medication assisted treatment the FDA has approved.
- B
Support people in treatment and recovery
Recovery housing, peer support, case management, transportation and the other supports that keep people in care.
- C
Connect people who need help to the help they need
Screening, warm hand offs, bridge clinics, crisis stabilization and treatment started in the emergency room.
- D
Address the needs of criminal justice involved persons
Diversion and deflection programs, recovery courts, and treatment for people in custody and on re entry.
- E
Address the needs of pregnant or parenting women and their families
Treatment in pregnancy and after birth, care for babies with neonatal abstinence syndrome, and family supports.
Part two, prevention
F to H- F
Prevent over prescribing and ensure appropriate prescribing and dispensing of opioids
Prescriber education, safe prescribing and tapering training, and prescription monitoring program work.
- G
Prevent misuse of opioids
Public education, drug take back and disposal, community coalitions and school prevention programs.
- H
Prevent overdose deaths and other harms
Naloxone and the training to use it, syringe services, testing and treatment for HIV and hepatitis C.
Part three, other strategies
I to L- I
First responders
Two things only. Education on fentanyl precautions, and wellness services for responders carrying secondary trauma.
- J
Leadership, planning and coordination
Planning that identifies local need, a public dashboard, and the staffing that coordinates abatement work.
- K
Training
Staff training that raises the capacity of government and community organizations to abate the crisis.
- L
Research
Monitoring, surveillance, evaluation of abatement programs, and research tied to the same purpose.
Police patrol vehicles, license plate readers and surveillance cameras do not appear on the list. The first responder category covers education on fentanyl precautions and responder wellness. It does not cover equipment or vehicles.
Read Exhibit E in fullWhat a town said, and what a town paid
The report
The annual filing each town makes to the Department of Human Services through the opioid abatement reporting tool.
- Annual filing, dueSeptember 1
- Formfields Q1 to Q18
- Lineamount received
- Lineawards approved, recipient and program
- Lineamounts disbursed on approved purposes
- Lineadministrative expenses
- LineSchedule B strategy per program
The ledger
The records the town produced from its own accounting system, covering the same account and the same period.
- Obtained underOpen Public Records Act
- Recordgeneral ledger, settlement account
- Recordbudget detail
- Recordpurchase orders
- Recordvendor invoices
- Recordgoverning body resolutions
- Recordbank statements
A town that produces no ledger carries a records status instead of a grade, and the refusal is shown as plainly as a failing letter.
Every townCertified total, ledger total, difference
Every total on this site is computed from rows in integer cents. Nobody types a figure.
Each certified program is matched to the transactions that would have paid for it. The match is recorded as exact, sum, partial, none or phantom.
A reconciliation that does not sum does not publish, not even by a cent.
Subdivision Annual Opioid Abatement Report and the account detail the jurisdiction produced, both public records open the jurisdiction page
Every transaction runs the same four gates
A payment that clears all four is conforming. A payment that fails any one is non conforming, and the gate it failed is recorded with it.
01
Category match
We check whether the spending is a use Exhibit E Schedule B lists. The list is non exhaustive, so a use it does not name can still conform when it is part of a documented, evidence based program that mitigates the epidemic. Patrol vehicles, general law enforcement equipment and surveillance technology are not among the uses it lists. We never rest a finding on this gate alone. A spend that is not listed is non conforming only when it also fails the evidence, supplantation or existence gate.
Exhibit E, Schedule B, categories A through L02
Evidence based
Nearly every category requires an evidence based or evidence informed program. New Jersey carries the same standard in statute. A category label alone does not clear this gate.
N.J.S.A. 26:2G-39(e)03
Anti supplantation
Settlement money cannot take the place of money a government would have spent anyway. A category match still fails where the spending was already funded from a capital or operating budget.
Agreement Section D(7) and N.J.S.A. 26:2G-39(f)04
Existence and documentation
The program has to exist and the records have to show it. A program certified to the State with no payment behind it and no activity in the books fails here.
Agreement Section F(3)The reporting period check
A gate failure says the spending was non conforming. It does not say the report was false. Spending that falls after the last filed report is marked not yet reported, and it is never counted as a false report. Once that report is past due and still not on file, the year scores 0 in reporting integrity.
The rule is published before it runs
The rubric
Code applies one published rubric, at one version, to every jurisdiction with ledger coverage.
Read the rubricCorrections
Send the record that shows a figure is wrong and the response publishes beside the finding.
Corrections policyA town certifies to the State that settlement money paid for drug education. Its own ledger shows the same dollars paid for Flock cameras, vehicles and vehicle upfitting. We call that a false report.
Subdivision Annual Opioid Abatement Report, the account detail and purchase orders the jurisdiction produced, and Exhibit E, Schedule B, categories A through L. Both records are published on the jurisdiction page, with the page anchors.