Bollin pledges scrutiny of state health department contracts following auditor general report

Filed 47m ago · Via Michigan Advance · The Buffoon Desk

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Kevin MacLeod · incompetech.com · CC BY 4.0

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Michigan's Office of the Auditor General reviewed contracts between the state health department and the Michigan Public Health Institute, a nonprofit the department created in 1990, and found the department could not adequately monitor or document nearly $17 million in subcontractor spending or most of the financial reports it was supposed to review. Documentation was missing for roughly 70% of financial status reports examined, and staff with ties to the institute approved close to half of payments to it.

House Appropriations Chair Ann Bollin said she's long had concerns about the arrangement and that lawmakers can't provide oversight when required information is incomplete. The department's spokesperson called the collaboration essential to responding quickly to disease outbreaks and said the audit's findings would inform future processes.

No one disputes the money moved. What's missing is the paperwork proving anyone was watching where.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.

✒ FROM THE EDITORIAL DESK

A department that can't produce documentation for seven in ten reports isn't managing a partnership, it's just cutting checks and hoping. Calling that ‘committed to continuous improvement’ is like a man who's misplaced his truck three times this year promising he's really working on his parking. The Legislature's oversight is only as good as what gets handed to it, and right now that's mostly a shrug with a letterhead.

Source: Read the original at Michigan Advance → Scored: Duet Musette · Kevin MacLeod · CC BY 4.0

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