State auditors have found small but persistent financial issues at the National Guard involving no-bid contracts, failure to collect federal grants in a timely way and failure to charge staff for the commuting expenses for use of state-owned cars.
In a response sent by Maj. Gen. Bruce Tuxill, the Guard agreed with all the findings by the legislative auditors. The department had given the same assurances about the same three problems the auditors had found three years ago.
The dollar amounts in question are relatively minor in a department that spends more than $65 million a year. The Army and Air National Guard have 34 armories around the state and other facilities.
Legislative auditor Bruce Myers said the department spent about $883,000 on personnel services contracts “for which the department did not solicit competitive bids and obtain certain approvals as required” by state regulations.
Tuxill? said that just last week, the Guard “established formal procedures” to make sure contracts are awarded properly and he said the Guard was reviewing the contracts the auditors highlighted. If necessary, the contracts will be sent to the Board of Public Works or the Department of Budget and Management for retroactive review.
Auditors said Maryland?s military department lost as much as $35,000 by not submitting requests for federal funds in a timely fashion. The department promised to fix the problem.
The auditors, who work for the Maryland General Assembly, also found that seven employees who had exclusive use of state cars were not charged commuting fees of about $34,000 for private use of the vehicles.
The department said six of the seven had been granted waivers of the fee, and money was recovered from the seventh for the payroll deductions that stopped due to an administrative error. The Guard assigned state cars to 36 employees.
