The District agency charged with overseeing the city’s disability compensation program paid a subcontractor thousands of dollars for services included in another government contract, a new audit reveals.
The D.C. Office of the Inspector General analyzed 32 charges paid by the Office of Risk Management to Wayne, Pa.-based Genex Services Inc. for nurse case management. The auditor found a staggering 91 percent — 29 of the 32 billings paid between July 1, 2005, and June 30, 2006 — were for services already covered under a three-year, $9.4 million deal with CompManagement of Virginia Inc., the day-to-day manager of the workers’ compensation program.
“They paid a prime to do the work,” William DiVello, assistant inspector general for audits, said of the Risk Management Office. “They got double-billed.”
The audit attributed the issue to ORM’s failure to identify whether the reported charges were allowable. “Additionally, ORM’s management was not knowledgeable of the terms of the [CompManagement] contract,” the report states.
DiVello said there’s no evidence that CompManagement submitted false claims. The 32-charge IG sample totaled $4,676, of which the audit found only $1,514 was justified. But by extrapolating the sample, the IG determined that $370,642 of $408,985 charged by CompManagement for nurse case management during the one-year period was invalid and could be recovered.
The audit was completed last September, toward the end of Mayor Anthony Williams’ administration, and forwarded to interim Chief Risk Officer Kelly Valentine for comment. In her written comments, Valentine argued that the Genex services were not covered under the $9.4 million contract, but rather were a “one-time assignment.” With Genex’s help, Valentine said, risk management was able to close cases and save the city $818,794.
The IG found Valentine’s comments nonresponsive and incomplete and requested additional information, which has not yet been received.
