Ohio Child Welfare Services Busted For $216 Million In Fraud

It must be noted that the $59 million is only the federal portion of the fraud.  The other $157 million got eaten up by the taxpayers.

Contained within this report is a significant finding.  There were no contracts and there was double-billing.  That is right, antitrust violations all over the place.  There is no competitive pricing for the delivery of services because the State of Ohio allowed these child placing agencies to bill for whatever, whenever they wanted.

The best parts about this audit are that it was only conducted for 2001 through 2004 and the fraudfeasors got away with it.  Just think what will be found if the audit was conducted on the entire state's child welfare contractual relationships.  Billions and billions in fraud would be found.

Our review found $59 million (Federal share) in unallowable

Administration for Children and Families (ACF) costs identified in the

Ohio Department of Job and Family Services' (State agency) report for

services provided by child welfare organizations from July 1, 2001,

through June 30, 2004.  We conducted this audit at the request of ACF

after the State agency identified a total of $216 million in unallowable

costs reported by the Hamilton County Department of Job and Family

Services (County agency).  The County agency inappropriately allocated

the child welfare organizations' costs through indirect cost pools.  The

State agency inappropriately claimed the costs because it relied on the

County agency's reported program costs and did not ensure that the

County agency allocated the costs in accordance with the cost allocation

plan and other Federal requirements.

Review of Ohio Department of Job and Family Services Claims for Costs Reported by the Hamilton County Depar...
Here is the original Ohio Auditor General's report.

Significant Results – During the period July 1, 2001 through June 30, 2004, HCDJFS transferred $104,956,741 from the restricted Children Services fund to the Public Assistance fund. Additionally, HCDJFS transferred $50,169,735 of Title IV-E Administration and Training grant proceeds and $13,110,262 of State Child Protective Allocation proceeds from a restricted County agency fund to the Public Assistance fund. HCDJFS also receipted $1,016,298 of State Child Protective Allocation proceeds statutorily required to be receipted into the Children Services fund into the Public Assistance fund. HCDJFS asserted these transactions were to reimburse the Public Assistance fund for expenses incurred on behalf of other programs for which the transferred monies could be used. However, HCDJFS was unable to provide documentation supporting the actual expenses incurred in

the Public Assistance fund for which it claimed and received reimbursement. As such, we made a finding for adjustment for $169,253,036 against the Public Assistance fund in favor of the Children Services fund.

Hamilton County Department of Job and Family Services Special Audit for the Period July 1, 2000 through Jun...