Hamilton County must pay for audit
Columbus Dispatch, November 25, 2006, News pg. D5.
CINCINNATI -- Hamilton County officials are unhappy that county taxpayers will have to foot the bill for a $300,000 state review of the county's job and family services department.
The report from the Ohio auditor's office in September accused the Hamilton County agency of improperly documenting the spending of tens of millions of dollars.
"It's like asking the guy on Death Row to buy his own rope," said county administrator Patrick Thompson.
Ohio Auditor Betty D. Montgomery's office concluded that the Hamilton County Department of Job and Family Services, which handles child welfare and job services, must restore about $150 million in improperly documented spending to a fund that serves children.
Montgomery's report came less than a week after a separate audit report by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services that questioned $1.7 billion in spending by the county agency and said the agency must repay at least $223 million for money spent improperly.
That audit, covering fiscal years 2002 through 2004, said that federal, state and levy income were so badly commingled that they were virtually unauditable.
County officials have contended that they did nothing wrong and that the state and local funds in question were spent properly and money intended for children and the poor was spent only on them. The county has hired accountants to fight the audit's findings.
Montgomery's audit questioned more than $37 million of spending among the county agency's various funds. The audit, covering July 1, 2000, through June 30, 2004, identified nine citations for noncompliance and detailed specific amounts that must be repaid among the agency's funds.
Those funds included public assistance, children services, child support and a general fund.
The required transfers among the funds would result in a net repayment of about $150 million to the children services fund.
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