Maine repays $400K in federal grants after wrongly awarding contract
The Maine Department of Health and Human Services has returned $398,055 to the U.S. Department of Justice, after auditors found DHHS inappropriately administered a federal grant for crime-victim assistance.
The returned funds represent fees paid to a consultant without first putting the work out to bid, according to a report released Thursday by the DOJ’s Office of the Inspector General.
Maine received $28.1 million from the federal Crime Victim Fund between 2014 and 2017. The fund helps pay for counseling, crisis intervention, emergency shelter and other aid to crime victims.
Under the grants, a noncompetitive consulting contract of more than $150,000 would have required written justification and advance approval of the DOJ.
The Inspector General’s report does not disclose the identity of the consultant or the nature of the contract. But the report does contain an Aug. 23 response from DHHS Commissioner Jeanne Lambrew, saying the department repaid the fees to the feds in February.
Auditors also found numerous other problems with DHHS’ administration of the grants.
“DHHS lacked a funding allocation and planning strategy in accordance with the Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) guidance, lacked written procedures to monitor compliance with priority area funding and performance reporting requirements, and inaccurately reported performance statistics,” the Office of the Inspector General said in the report.
“DHHS also did not require subrecipients to request reimbursement for costs by funding source or maintain supporting documentation, and was not compliant with cash management requirements. DHHS also did not adequately monitor its subrecipients.”
The report contains 15 recommendations for DHHS to follow in administering the crime-victim grants, and Lambrew agreed with all of them in her letter.
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