MD human resources sloppy with its money — to the tune of $27M

By Charlie Hayward | Maryland Reporter

In the last four years, the Department of Human Resources overspent its budget by $27 million — and inadvertently masked its overruns with improper accounting adjustments, an audit of the department has revealed.

After the audit came out, DHR removed the director of the grants management office due to concerns about oversight of millions of dollars of grants. The Office of Legislative Audits released the report late last month covering some DHR operations for three years, ending in August 2012.

The audit also found that DHR paid legal bills without checking to make sure the work had been performed and did not address major weaknesses that could result in fraud in computer systems that deliver or track food stamps, child support payments, and foster care payments.

The department promised to correct most of the problems, but it pointed out that the auditors did not actually find any fraud had occurred.

at Maryland Reporter.