Legislators hope to put more teeth into repeat audit findings of problems in state agencies. The General Assembly’s Joint Audit Committee agreed Tuesday to recommend that budget committees consider cuts to administrative funding for agencies that have four or more repeat findings in consecutive audits.
Read MoreTired of auditors finding the same problems in state agencies over and over again, legislators on the Joint Audit Committee on Tuesday kicked around proposals that would put some teeth in the law and force agencies fix the problems auditors found.
Read MoreTransportation Secretary Beverley Swaim-Staley told legislators Tuesday that the culture at the procurement arm of the State Highway Administration dealing with construction inspection comes from an “unacceptable pattern of poor contract management and administration in the organization.”
Read MoreAuditors found serious problems at the Maryland Department of the Environment, including questionable grants paid out of the Chesapeake Bay Restoration Fund, failure to do required safety screenings and construction site inspections and undisclosed computer system issues.
Read MoreState Human Resources Secretary Theodore Dallas told legislators that Improving enforcement, collections and information quality are top priorities during a hearing on three scathing reports about divisions he oversees.
Read MoreOutgoing Juvenile Services Secretary Donald DeVore told the legislature’s Joint Audit Committee Tuesday that when he received the findings of a scathing audit that exposed a host of large problems with record-keeping, financial management, contracts, monitoring and personnel in his department, he didn’t get defensive.
Instead, DeVore got to work.
Read MoreThere were so many opportunities for fraud and misuse of money by workers in the Baltimore region of the state prison system that state auditors are asking the attorney general to look into possible criminal charges.
Auditors found an “almost complete lack of control and accountability” for the corrections region’s working funds, uncovering included thousands of dollars in penalties for bounced checks, checking accounts out of balance by hundreds of thousands of dollars, and checks machine-signed by people who no longer worked at the department.
Read Morescathing audit of the Department of Juvenile Services exposed a host of large problems with recordkeeping, financial management, contracts, monitoring and personnel, including the loss of $3 million in federal Medicaid funds. Treatment funds were not recovered, $148 million in contracts did not get the proper approval, millions in other contracts were overpaid and ineligible employees got overtime pay or were paid twice.
The problems are so many and so severe that the General Assembly’s Joint Audit Committee plans a hearing on the report next month, its staff said.
Read MoreOfficials with the Maryland Automobile Insurance Fund defended their spending and staff bonuses to legislators on the joint audit committee Monday.
In a December report, state auditors were highly critical of $1.4 million in bonuses paid out to management and staff at the quasi-public agency for motorists who can’t get coverage anywhere else in 2008. That year, the insurer lost $20 million.
The audit also criticized MAIF spending $250,000 on consultants, marketing and lobbying, as well as on a $15,000 “appreciation” dinner for agents who refer clients.
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