Officials at a child care center in Montgomery County for low-income HIspanic children that is under investigation over its finances are accusing county officials of giving “an appearance” of ethnic discrimination.
Centro Familia in Wheaton also said the county owes the center $18,926.
Inspector General Thomas Dagley told the County Council earlier this year that the county had paid $900,000 to the center in fiscal years 2007 and 2008 without verifying the “validity and appropriateness” of the payments.
Dagley said the center’s inability to provide documentation to justify the county’s payments raised “significant concerns about É possible fraud, waste or abuse.”
In response to Dagley’s findings, the county’s chief administrative officer, Timothy Firestine, conducted his own investigation into the center and found that there had been “several” overpayments by the county.
But Centro Familia Executive Director Pilar Torres said the center had complied with every request by the county to show that its finances were legitimate, and was being tarred by “unfounded and totally unfair innuendoes.”
“We’re concerned that there are some issues here that go beyond an investigation of county funds,” Torres said.
When Dagley’s office “reviewed payments to vendors with Hispanic names, it required points of contact to demonstrate that none of the individuals were related” to officials at the center,” Torres and the center’s board president, David Anderson, wrote in a letter to Firestine.
As one example, Torres said, Dagley’s office investigated whether any of the center’s employees was related to a Hispanic contractor who fixed one of the center’s printers for $158.
“There has been a number of references by the Office of Inspector General and your office that gives an appearance of discrimination based on ethnic or national origin,” Torres and Anderson wrote.
The letter also said the center badly needed the money it said the county owed.
County officials refute the center’s charges.
County Executive Ike Leggett’s spokesman, Patrick Lacefield, said the county is interested in continuing to work with the center, but can’t make payments without proper documentation.
“We just can’t go on a say-so,” Lacefield said, adding that there had been no “double standard” in the county’s actions toward the center.
Dagley declined to comment.
