Waste and inefficiency, improper hiring, and other improper governmental activities
“Waste and Inefficiency, Improper Hiring, and Other Improper Governmental Activities” is the subtitle of the California State Auditor’s latest “Investigations of Improper Activities by State Agencies and Employees.”
There are some real doozies.
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I have for years recommended cutting the size of California’s state government in half – except for the State Auditor’s office. It needs more funding, more employees and the autonomy to be California’s own DOGE – Department of Government Efficiency.
Buckle up.
“An accounting supervisor with the Department of Health Care Services (Health Care Services) failed to deposit a check for nearly $875,000 from the county of Los Angeles more than two years ago,” the latest state audit reports. “Health Care Services’ failure to promptly deposit the check resulted in waste and inefficiency.”
So the check just sat in someone’s in box for 2 years? No, it’s far more convoluted than that.
Here is what the auditor reported:
LA County contacted Health Care Services in December 2021 to ask about a missing check in the amount of $874,707 and submitted a request to reissue the missing reimbursement. A new check to LA County was issued, and so was a second check the following month for the missing $874,707. LA County deposited both checks.
LA County issued a check refunding Health Care Services for the duplicate payment of $874,707, and that is what was not deposited.
As the State Auditor correctly summarized:
“The accounting supervisor’s failure to promptly deposit the check violated state policy and was economically wasteful, depriving the State from using the $874,707 for other departmental needs over the last two years. Had our office not received and investigated the complaint, Health Care Services would likely not have followed up on the unclaimed check and could have forfeited the opportunity to recoup the funds.”
God help us.
California Department of Tax and Fee Administration
150 current and former employees incurred more than $92,000 for unsupported travel expenses that occurred before 2024 at the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration.
Formerly the Board of Equalization, the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration, the agency tasked with extracting sales and use and fuel and cigarette taxes from businesses in California, allowed more than $92,000 in unnecessary/unauthorized/gratuitous travel expenses by its own employees?
The auditor reported:
These expenses included charges such as airfare and rental cars and were paid for directly by the department. The employees subsequently did not submit any justification for the expenses.
As with nearly every private sector company or government agency where employees have to travel for business, “in order to support state-paid travel expenses, employees must submit a travel expense claim or explanation to their supervisor for approval that provides the justification for the trip and expenses, and they must include supporting receipts when appropriate.”
However, the state auditor “also found that CDTFA did not maintain an effective system of controls to provide oversight.”
This is just inexcusable:
“An official admitted that the travel unit had not reconciled charges against travel claims for at least three or four years. She also reported that when she discussed this with the two supervisors who have direct oversight of the travel unit, the supervisors were not even aware that their unit needed to perform this function. Both oversight officials explained that CDTFA is attempting to develop and document a reconciliation process whereby travel unit staff reconcile travel charges against expense claims on a monthly basis to ensure that employees submit an appropriate travel claim for the charges.”
Other. People’s. Money. Yet the agency is quite effective in collecting sales and use and fuel and cigarette taxes from California private sector businesses.
UPDATE : Tamma Adamek, Strategic Initiatives and External Affairs Division with the CDTFA emailed and said the agency was “dinged for not processing paperwork for about $92,000 in travel expenses in a timely way.” She also said that “since the State Auditor’s report was issued, employees have submitted and our team has processed travel expense claims and explanations for all of the expenses cited in the report.”
CalVet
The State Auditor reports that CalVet purchased 150 mattresses—costing more than $200 a piece—to replace old and worn out mattresses for residents in the skilled nursing unit at the home. However, the home disposed of at least 17 of those mattresses before they were ever used because they were stored outside for an extended period and became damaged from exposure to the elements.
Stuck on stupid.
CalVet also purchased 15 specialized bed frames, at $1,561 each, for its fall-risk residents at the home. As of February 2024, the home had not put the bed frames into service and was storing 13 of them outside, exposed to the elements, where the bed frames rusted.
I’m shaking my head. What is the matter with these people?
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