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Montgomery Department Faulted on 4 Contracts
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The report also says advance payments were made improperly, ignoring a requirement that the director of procurement approve them and present them to the finance director before the checks were cut. State and federal regulations have similar requirements.
Some work was authorized well after Health Management Consultants supposedly did it. In one instance, on June 30, 2006, the last day of the fiscal year, the county issued a $41,123 procurement order for management advice provided to the Reginald Lourie Center and the Family Services Agency, nonprofit social service organizations that were having financial problems, according to the report.
Becker's report says Atkins told him that the work had been done at least a year earlier, "based on an understanding that [the county] would subsequently arrange for funding to pay for the work." The county paid the company Aug. 23, 2006, two months after the procurement order was issued.
In each case, the county Department of Finance paid the bill even though there was reason to doubt that the work could have been done in the time between the procurement order, which authorized the work, and the request for payment, the report says.
Timothy Firestine, who headed the Finance Department during most of the period in question, said that finances at Health and Human Services were a long-standing concern and that Leggett more than a year ago began an internal audit to try to improve safeguards. That work is continuing, said Firestine, who left the department in 2006 to become Leggett's chief administrator. He said he welcomed the inspector general's findings.
"To me, this is where the IG system works, whether it comes through the hotline or someone raises a question," he said.
Dagley's office report on Health and Human services is part of an ongoing review of accounts payable in the county's $4 billion budget. The office is trying to determine whether the county government has sufficient systems in place to deter waste, fraud and abuse. Based on his office's findings thus far, Dagley plans a deeper look at contracts Health and Human Services has with outside contractors.
Staff researcher Meg Smith contributed to this report.
