A recent audit of the state Department of Public Health found a system riddled with a variety of financial, personnel and safety lapses, many of which were problems that had gone unchanged for years, including its ignorance of a $2 million federal grant it had been awarded.
The list of auditor findings are extensive. Health department property went unaccounted for. State contractors began work without formal agreements in place. And the department, which safeguards the public health, has no recovery plan in the event of a major disaster.
The Auditors of Public Accounts made 16 recommendations in its 34-page report of department activities during 2004 and 2005, many of which were repeats from the previous audit done years prior.
Numerous Findings
“That’s a lot of recommendations for an agency of this size,” said auditor Robert Jaekle, but he noted that the auditors didn’t uncover any particularly vast or emergency-level weaknesses.
The health department, which spent $70 million from the general fund in 2005, covers a large number of functions, including regulating health care providers of all stripes and providing health care programs. It also takes on tasks such as testing for toxins in the environment, maintaining vital records such as birth and death numbers, regulating drinking water systems and a slew of other functions.
Released on Nov. 26, the audit findings show a range of management weaknesses within the department and its many subdivisions, Jaekle said.
Among the findings:
• Seats on the department’s governing boards were unfilled or occupied by frequently absent members. Some members stayed on long after their original terms were up, including some cases where the appointee had been serving since 1988.
• The department didn’t record its equipment correctly, over reporting its equipment by about $600,000 in 2005. Additionally, the department failed to report the loss of about $37,000 worth of equipment — much of that value was tied up in 12 lost laptop computers.
• A whistleblower had earlier tried to bring regulators’ attention to an employee’s on-the-clock slacking, but auditors found out that they had no way of investigating the accusation; the department had no established method of tracking employees’ work time.
• The federal government owed the department about $2 million for a Women, Infants and Children grant for the 2004-2005 fiscal year, but the department didn’t realize it until auditors pointed out the lapse during their report.
• The department turned in its financial reports late — seven months late, in one case — which can skew the State Comptroller’s statewide financial reports. Late federal financial reporting can result in the withholding of federal funds.
• In most cases, the department does not independently verify criminal background checks to ensure the department does not issue licenses to those who have been found guilty or convicted felons.
The auditors do note that some lapses weren’t necessarily the department’s fault: its troubles with holes in its governing boards can be attributed to the governor’s office failing to make new appointments. But in most cases, the department, headed by J. Robert Galvin, agreed with the findings and said they were working to correct the errors.
