April 16, 2013
One department at the University of Maryland Baltimore was found to have misused state-issued credit cards to dodge purchasing rules, and four people were using two credit cards issued to only two people, according to state auditors.
An audit report released Monday said purchases made on these two corporate purchasing cards, which had monthly limits of $400,000 or more, "were artificially split in order to bypass formal procurement policies," which generally require competitive bids for purchases over $5,000. [...more]
January 30, 2013
State senators on a budget subcommittee said that they were dismayed by the abysmal results of the state’s most recent audit of its Department of Human Resources, which distributes welfare, foster care, and other social services to needy Marylanders.
Its 2012 audit revealed hundreds of financial and ethical improprieties committed by state social workers between 2008 and 2011, including 77 repeat findings of mistakes that were discovered by auditors five years earlier. [...more]
September 28, 2012
The Maryland Labor Department’s Division of Unemployment Insurance overpaid millions in benefits to people who were actually working and shelled out unemployment benefits to people who were dead or in prison. The division also certified job stimulus tax credits for employers hiring the unemployed for some workers who weren’t actually receiving unemployment benefits.
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August 20, 2012
The Executive Department and governor’s office had missing computer equipment, improper handling of cash receipts and unreliable inventory records, state auditors found, and some of the problems had been uncovered in previous audits. [...more]
July 27, 2012
The Housing and Community Development Department filed reports on escrow accounts six months late and $194,000 supposed to go to housing was sent to the wrong state agency by a bank without efforts to recover it, state auditors found. Similar audits in past years had found the same problems with the escrow accounts. [...more]
July 3, 2012
When it comes to finding waste, fraud and abuse -- or just plain old carelessness -- within Maryland government, no agency does more than the Office of Legislative Audits – mainly because it’s their job.
Bruce Myers, 61, has headed the office for the last 15 years and was the deputy legislative auditor for 10 years before that. On Friday, he retired after 35 years of producing hundreds of audits that have generated familiar headlines over the years.
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February 1, 2012
A year after a new law was signed prohibiting inmates from having access to people’s sensitive personal information, an audit found that inmates in Maryland Correctional Enterprises doing data entry could see some Social Security numbers. [...more]
December 30, 2011
Gov. Martin O’Malley told reporters Thursday that “yes, perhaps” tax hikes would be part of next year’s proposed budget as part of a “balanced approach,” but he declined to be more specific. [...more]
July 29, 2011
Auditors found that Morgan State University has a litany of problems with controlling spending on scholarships, research and development grants, and granting access to its computer systems – but on the whole, the university is doing much better. [...more]
April 17, 2011
Two employees stole thousands from the government departments where they worked, auditors say, and both were fired. One made $71,000 worth of unauthorized purchases with a government credit card from the Department of Natural Resources, and another took $12,500 in cash from the Division of Pretrial Detention and Services.
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