Erie County Times

The Auditor General found a potential conflict of interest in Jefferson County Children and Youth Services agency.

Auditor General Timothy L. DeFoor released an audit of the Jefferson County Children and Youth Services agency which helped the county improve how it protects vulnerable children.

“During our routine audit of this agency, we were specifically asked to evaluate if an outside contract for case management services was functioning the way it should,” DeFoor said. “We were able to help the Jefferson County Commissioners determine the contract was not meeting the needs of the community and county employees need to do this work in order to ensure vulnerable children are being protected. Protecting our children is our most important job.”

The county had been facing problems recruiting people who will agree to work for the agency. It hired a contractor to administer most of the services. However, there was no employee from the county left in charge of the agency because the agency director had been shifted to the contractor's payroll from the county's employment, as per the audit report. This led to the birth of a conflict of interest and also had the potential to lead to gaps in service as it did not comply with Pennsylvania Department of Human Services’ (DHS) regulations.

The audit also found that: "The contract with the management company was vague, lacked many of the standard contract terms and conditions, and did not include specific outcomes or performance measures; The management company failed to consistently meet the necessary administrative actions required by DHS regulations, according to county officials; Quality control reviews of case files were performed by a management company employee rather than a county employee or third party; A management company employee was approving payments made to the company by the county, creating a possible conflict of interest; and The county’s finance director was concerned by a lack of detail included in the invoices the management company provided for payment."

The audit has put forward some recommendations. One of them states that in case the county decides to hire a management company again, then there should be proper oversight on the internal controls, and it should be in proper compliance with state regulations.