Senators Dismayed At Human Resources Department’s Repeated Problems

State senators on a budget subcommittee said that they were dismayed by the abysmal results of the state’s most recent audit of its Department of Human Resources, which distributes welfare, foster care, and other social services to needy Marylanders.

Its 2012 audit revealed hundreds of financial and ethical improprieties committed by state social workers between 2008 and 2011, including 77 repeat findings of mistakes that were discovered by auditors five years earlier. The documented errors included unwarranted denial of services, erratic record-keeping, defective data security, and instances where former employees had improper access to state bank accounts.

Audit manager Joshua Adler said these issues were deeply concerning during his testimony before the Senate’s Health and Human Services Subcommittee on Thursday. “This is a real problem,” Adler said. “I’m not going to say that I’ve never seen this in an audit before, but it’s rare.”
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