Audit: $100k in D.C. health grants misspent
By: Michael Neibauer
Examiner Staff Writer
October 1, 2009
Four D.C.-area nonprofits misspent or wasted more than 40 percent of $235,000 in grants awarded by the city's health department in 2007 to help sick children promote public health education, District auditors allege in a new report.
The Office of the Inspector General disallowed or questioned $99,335 of the nearly quarter million dollars invested by the Community Health Administration, a branch of the D.C. Department of Health, on the four grants.
Of that, the IG urged the District to attempt to recollect $47,326 "because these costs were not valid."
Auditors also found that three CHA employees who were responsible for either monitoring or awarding the noncompetitive grants also served on the advisory boards of two of the nonprofits. The entire administration has since been trained in "ethics and government," DOH officials said. One of the three workers continues to work for the agency.
The audit concluded:
-- Faces of Our Children was awarded $100,000 to provide sickle cell disease education sessions to school-age children. The organization conducted 22 sessions for 423 children, but it spent $4,620 on 5,000 wristbands, $1,787 on 10,000 bumper stickers, and $2,680 on 2,500 legal writing pads, among other questionable expenses.
-- The Quality Trust was granted $60,000 to refer 50 children with special health care needs for services and support. But Quality Trust received no referrals and served only three children, auditors said. The group has already returned $24,053.
-- Easter Seals received $50,000 to provide specialty services to as many as 50 disabled children in Medicaid-ineligible families. But the organization provided services to only eight children, two of whom were Medicaid eligible, while spending $4,027 on staff training.
-- Howard University Hospital's D.C. Greater Access to Pediatric Sickle Cell Services Project was awarded $25,000 to provide sickle cell disease-related services to families. The IG voided the entire grant as the nonprofit "could not provide us with evidence to support any work performed."
In his written response to the audit, D.C. health Director Pierre Vigilance acknowledged that his agency must improve how it monitors grant spending. He detailed a litany of changes already in place, pledged to use the audit as a "training tool" and indicated DOH will seek the repayment of roughly $23,000 as the IG suggested.
The Quality Trust executive director conceded some "internal difficulties" and staff issues in her Aug. 17 response to auditors. But Faces of Our Children President Donald Cash Sr. took strong issue with the inspector general's findings and accused investigators of taking "an accusatory tone and demeanor. ..."
