State auditors
recently concluded an audit of the state Department of Mental Health and
Addiction Services (DMHAS). Their findings, both depressing and alarming,
suggest no adults have been directing the agency. The audit covered only the
fiscal years 2009 and 2010.
Among the findings were
these:
·
Because
DMHAS had not properly monitored furlough days, more than 860 union employees
may have been paid for days not worked.
·
The
agency did not follow established procedures for capital projects, failing in
one instance to secure from the Department of Construction Services approval
for a $25,156 project. DMHAS also could not produce documentation to justify a
$12,000 change order and in addition failed to obtain certificates of
compliance for two separate projects that cost $72,000 and $95,000.
·
Having
reviewed client funds at the Southwest Connecticut Mental Health Network in
Bridgeport, a city plagued with rank incompetence, the auditors found that only
one person was charged with disbursing the money, procedures were “sloppy,” and
client accounts failed to match bank balances.
·
The
department poorly monitored cell phone use among its employees. The state had supplied
cellphones to 72 employees at Connecticut Valley Hospital. Because 18 employees
failed to return any bills and 28 employees submitted late bills, the state of
Connecticut – which has as its governor a crony capitalist who has vowed to
make the state over and tosses tax money out the window to preferred and
usually financially viable mega-companies – was unable to check if the state’s
union employees were charging taxpayers for personal calls.
Included in the
auditor’s report, according to a blockbuster story in the Hartford Courant that will not be receiving the media coverage it
deserves, is “the case of Benjamin Quinones, a former Connecticut Valley
Hospital police lieutenant who was arrested on first-degree larceny charges for
allegedly falsifying overtime records. Quinones was paid about $32,000 for 528
overtime hours that he submitted but didn't work, authorities charge.”
A number of “Why”
questions beg to be answered.
Are any adults at
home in ANY of the state agencies? A pro-active administration would know.
Would a similar
audit of a different union run state agency produce results more consoling to
Governor Dannel Malloy’s overtaxed constituents?
Following the
auditor’s report, how many heads will roll into how many baskets? Are adults
minding the store in the governor’s office satisfied with the level of
incompetence and actionable misbehavior indicated in the auditor’s report?
What precisely are
the fiduciary responsibilities of the executive and legislative branches of
state government to citizens paying the bills for improperly monitored furlough
days, or costly unapproved capital projects, or disbursals of tax money
unmonitored by agency heads, or possible private, non-work related cell phone usage,
or possible larcenous acts committed by – excuse my language – a #!!**$#
“POLICE LIEUTENANT arrested on first-degree larceny charges for allegedly
falsifying overtime records?
Is there perchance
anything in the auditor’s report that might excite the interest of
Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen, or the State’s Chief Attorney, or
union leaders who, unlike Republican legislators, were given a place at the
budget bargaining table by Mr. Malloy, the union friendly governor who
expresses his solidarity with state workers by marching on picket lines along
with Connecticut’s high-heeled Lieutenant Governor Nancy Wyman?
Of course, it is
always possible that the far traveled Mr. Malloy is too engaged in reinventing
Connecticut to bother much about maintaining the integrity of state government.
A governor who has his eyes fixed on the stars is not likely to take notice of the
potholes beneath his feet. But the auditor’s report is just the sort of man-swallowing
sinkhole that in happier days -- when taxpayers seemed unduly concerned how
their dollars were spent -- used to wreck the administrations of other utopian
star-gazers.
In the new political
dispensation – in which market decisions are made by governors rather than
markets, in which the premier Democratic Party in the state has little to fear
from a third tier Republican Party, unaffiliated voters and an anesthetized media – perhaps an audit such as this one is
nothing to agonize over.
In a one party
state, it is an easy matter to deep six persistent problems, even when vigilant
auditors are prowling the precincts. You may not be able to fool all the people
all the time. But if you can fool most of the people most of the time, you’re
good.
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