HARRISBURG — Gov. Tom Wolf’s business shutdown waiver program is being audited amid complaints it was managed unfairly, Pennsylvania’s chief fiscal watchdog announced Thursday.

Auditor General Eugene DePasquale said he is investigating how the Department of Community and Economic Development ran the waiver program, under which tens of thousands of businesses applied to remain open during the pandemic.

In March, Wolf, a Democrat, closed businesses deemed “non-life-sustaining” to help slow the spread of the coronavirus, which has sickened more than 45,000 Pennsylvania residents and killed nearly 2,300. Wolf said Thursday that he welcomed a review by the auditor general’s office, headed by DePasquale, a fellow Democrat who is running for Congress this year.

The pandemic and the state’s efforts to contain the virus have caused economic devastation, throwing nearly 1.7 million Pennsylvania residents out of work since mid-March.

“During this pandemic, obviously our economy has taken a huge hit. The question we need to find out is, could more businesses have been opened?” DePasquale said in a video news conference. “And was this done in a fair process?”

Many businesses have complained about a process they contend has been slow and arbitrary. Senate Republicans had been pressing for an audit, and Wolf agreed to it, according to DePasquale.

“A lot of businesses do believe it was cumbersome and not fair. That’s their point of view and we’re going to investigate their claims,” DePasquale said.

In a separate telephone news conference, Wolf offered a vigorous defense of the waiver program.

Pennsylvania was possibly the only state to allow businesses to appeal their designation as either essential or nonessential as governors across the country ordered shutdowns, Wolf said.

The waiver process, he said, was done in an attempt to make the state’s shutdown more open and transparent, giving businesses the chance to make their case to a team of employees in the Department of Community and Economic Development.

All told, out of about 1 million businesses in Pennsylvania, about 1 percent applied and were denied, Wolf said.

“We tried to do the right thing,” Wolf said. “Were some mistakes made? Maybe. And if they were, then the folks in Pennsylvania have every right to know about that. I think the auditor general is in a really good position to determine whether that in fact happened.”

More than 42,000 businesses applied for exemptions by the April 3 application deadline. Over 6,000 had been approved through Wednesday, while more than 13,000 applications were denied. Thousands more businesses applied for waivers that didn’t need them to stay open, according to state officials.

People with disabilities

An umbrella group of Pennsylvania organizations that serve about 30,000 people with intellectual disabilities and autism say severe funding and staffing problems could lead some to shut down in the coming weeks.

The care providers face high turnover and job vacancy rates in normal times, and those issues have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Mark Davis, president of Pennsylvania Advocacy and Resources for Autism and Intellectual Disability.

One provider recently laid off 100 people, Davis said. A growing problem with employees calling off work — particularly in areas hit hard by the virus —- has pushed up overtime costs and forced managers to fill gaps, he said.