No-bid emergency food and transportation service procurements followed a failure by state officials to assess and react to a spike in demand for shelter services, according audit results released Tuesday.

Auditor Diana DiZoglio’s audit of the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities covered the period from July 1, 2021, through June 30, 2024, when state officials were scrambling to find emergency shelter for an influx of migrants as well as families in need from Massachusetts.

The auditor’s office called the use of the emergency procurements “improper and unlawful,” and said bypassing standard procurement procedures resulted in a “lack of fairness via competitive bidding and a lack of transparency and accountability in the contracting process.”

“The no-bid contracts resulted in unnecessarily high costs and inefficiencies,” the auditor’s office said. “Moreover, the duration of the no-bid contracts was excessive. Non-compliance with proper procurement protocols hinders the integrity of the contracting process and undermines the public’s trust in government.”

The audit report said many issues raised within it “point to a lack of administrative oversight” at the executive office, which was under Gov. Charlie Baker’s oversight for part of the audit period and which Gov. Maura Healey has overseen since the beginning of 2023. It became a standalone secretariat under Healey in 2023.

“This is an opportunity for the administration to reevaluate how it can and must be a more responsible steward of its significant authorities during states of emergency,” DiZoglio said in a statement.

Asked if she anticipated changes based on the audit report, Healey told reporters at the State House, “I doubt it. I mean, this has been territory pretty well covered. We as a team spent a lot of time on it the last two years. I instituted a number of reforms along the way.

“We worked very hard on all of this,” she added. “I haven’t seen what the auditor has to say. We’ll take a look.”

Healey this week said reforms are reducing shelter caseloads and will eliminate the need for hotel shelters.

Republican candidate for governor Brian Shortsleeve called for Housing Secretary Ed Augustus to be fired.

“This audit shows a systemic problem of carelessness with our tax dollars,” Shortsleeve said in a statement. “Where do we go to get our money back from these pricey no bid contracts? Healey’s team blew millions on shady no-bid contracts, handed out sweetheart deals, and got taken for a ride, literally, with $150 cab fares and bloated food bills.”

Mike Kennealy, another GOP candidate for governor, said further investigation is needed “of the severe and pervasive impacts of this crisis on public safety, education and health care.”

Kennealy oversaw state programs while serving as Baker’s secretary of housing and economic development, overseeing the secretariat that has since been bifurcated.

Kennealy said there was “no justification” for the no-bid contracts.

“Gov. Healey allowed this program to spiral without proper oversight, wasting millions that taxpayers will never recover. Massachusetts deserves better,” Kennealy said.

The 70-page audit report delves into the specific contracts and includes responses from the executive office.

“EOHLC was in the midst of a crisis during the audit period,” the executive office said in one response. “Since then, EOHLC has built a stronger, more sustainable shelter program, and increased staffing to appropriately accommodate the system to ensure it runs efficiently and achieves our goal that shelter be rare, brief and nonrecurring. Many of the actions and policy reforms address the issues identified by the [Office of the State Auditor’s] report.”

An Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities official, who agreed to communicate on background only, said the procurements done by the executive office “were necessary, lawful and effective during this crisis moment” and that the office “maintained all procurement files as required by statute.”

The emergency contracts no longer exist, the official said, all vendors have gone through the procurement process, and the office “properly managed its shelter providers and adhered to the terms of its contracts.”