$800K TONER SCAM @ L.A. FAMILY SERVICES

[Anonymous]

wasteful spending at L.A.’s Children and Family Services
08/2007LOS
ANGELES—The county agency overseeing children’s services has misspent
millions of dollars on unnecessary and overpriced office supplies and
can’t account for all its equipment, according to an audit.Auditors
noted more than a dozen deficiencies in procurement operations at the
Department of Children and Family Services, and said slack management
oversight may have resulted in misappropriations of funds and
property.The Office of Investigations is studying whether any
fraudulent activities took place and officials said they expect an
undisclosed number of employees to be fired or disciplined, the Los
Angeles Daily News reported Wednesday.”It’s highly unusual for a
department to have violated this many policies,” said
Auditor-Controller Tyler McCauley.The audit said the procurement
department violated county policies in purchasing and maintaining
inventory of everything from printer cartridges and gift cards to
computer flash cards and file cabinets.

The department, for
example, purchased $1.4 million worth of gift cards in July 2005, but
officials could not provide auditors with documents to support $115,000
of $700,000 in gift-card purchases.”Consequently, we could not verify
that all gift cards were used for appropriate purposes,” auditors wrote.
The
audit also said more than 70 percent of toner cartridges purchased in
June 2006 were expected to expire and may not be usable because too
many were ordered at a time.Auditors also noted the agency paid 15
percent more per cartridge on a follow-up order later in the month that
also wasn’t needed.
Agency Chief Deputy Director Susan Kerr,
who started last October, requested the audit after receiving reports
about problems in the Procurement and Forms Management Section, which
is responsible for spending $177 million on services and supplies.”We
have been reacting very quickly,” Kerr said.Tony Bell, spokesman for
Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich, said that while the audit is
disconcerting, Antonovich believes that DCFS Director Trish Ploehn has
shown leadership in the matter.”We understand there will be a number of
firings and disciplinary actions taken,” Bell said.

County making the right move ?
 08//2007LOS
Angeles County’s controls over spending in its various departments
could be likened to a great steel sieve – things that go in usually end
up slipping right out.Case in point is
the revelation earlier this month that the Department of Children and
Family Services’ procurement system was so out of control that it had
managed to spend $800,000 on printer toner cartridges in one month.Then
there was the mismanagement by Sheriff Lee Baca of the relocation of a
special forces bureau in which spending policies were not followed.And
that’s just the past two weeks.The County Board of Supervisors last
week finally called for an end to the sieve-like action and ordered a
review of county spending. It’s not a moment too soon, as county
officials have been worried for years about the toll of fraud and
simple waste as part of the county procurement system. 

[Author]

August 29, 2007 at 12:40 PM