The District has long known that its most troubled department, the agency serving the disabled and mentally retarded, overspent its fiscal year 2006 budget by $18 million, but a new audit suggests those “spending pressures” might have been violations of the law.
The audit, produced by the D.C. inspector general at the request of D.C. Council Member Adrian Fenty, chairman of the human services committee, found multiple spending actions by the Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities Administration “resulted in apparent violations of the District’s and federal anti-deficiency laws.”
“Specifically, MRDDA was obligated financially to pay for services for its consumers without adequate funding,” the inspector general wrote.
Anti-deficiency laws are meant to prevent government departments from spending more money than is authorized or is available. The inspector general wrote that the administration “established obligations for goods and services necessary to run its operations without adequate funding during FY 2006.”
Other violations, according to the audit: MRDDA failed to record expenses in the District’s accounting system, and the chief financial officer covered the $18 million shortfall with transfers from outside funds.
The CFO’s general counsel is examining whether anti-deficiency violations occurred. A violation would require a report to Congress and a hearing before the Anti-Deficiency Review Board.
The administration, a deeply troubled department, faces federal receivership without quick reform, and Mayor Anthony Williams is seeking to make it a Cabinet-level agency under his control. The agency operates under a long-standing court order but has been unable to meet benchmarks for improvement — and multiple clients have died or been abused in its care.
Brenda Donald Walker, deputy mayor for children, youth, families and elders, said her office has been working on the financial issues “since we discovered that the agency was overspending its budget.”
“The focus is on fixing it, getting it right and making sure the agency has enough money and will live within its budget,” she said.
That there may have been “technical” violations of anti-deficiency laws required discipline, she said, hence the firing of the former MRDDA administrator and chief of contracts.
“It’s a whole new team in place,” Walker said.
