Department of Human Services: Behavioral Health Administration Grants

Finding 1

The Behavioral Health Administration used single source grants when they were not justified and did not always sufficiently document its reasons for using single source grants. (p. 13)

Recommendations

The Behavioral Health Administration should use single source grants only when just one entity is reasonably able to meet the grant’s purpose and objective, as required by Office of Grants Management policy.
The Behavioral Health Administration should sufficiently document the reasons for using single source grants.
The Behavioral Health Administration should implement effective internal controls to ensure that when it uses single source grants, it does so in compliance with Office of Grants Management policy.

Finding 2

In its grant agreements, the Behavioral Health Administration did not always cite its statutory authority to administer grants or its authority for specific grant programs. (p. 15)

Recommendations

The Behavioral Health Administration should cite its statutory authority to administer grants and authority for specific grant programs in all grant agreements, as required by Office of Grants Management policy.
Behavioral Health Administration management should strengthen its internal controls by thoroughly reviewing grant agreements before signing them.

Finding 3

The Behavioral Health Administration did not always execute grant agreement amendments before the original grant agreements expired. (p. 17)

Recommendations

The Behavioral Health Administration should plan for enough time to execute grant amendments before agreements expire.
The Behavioral Health Administration should have sufficient controls to ensure it timely executes grant amendments.

Finding 4

The Behavioral Health Administration paid some grantees for work performed before it fully executed the grant agreements. (p. 18)

Recommendations

The Behavioral Health Administration should make payments to grantees only for costs incurred after grant agreements are fully executed, as required by state policy.
The Behavioral Health Administration should strengthen its internal controls to ensure that it makes payments to grantees only for costs incurred after the grant agreement has been fully executed.

Finding 5

The Behavioral Health Administration overpaid two grantees. (p. 19)

Recommendations

The Behavioral Health Administration should conduct financial reconciliations to identify any discrepancies between approved reimbursement requests in the grant management system and payments in the state’s accounting system.
The Department of Human Services should determine and remedy the cause of the inaccurate grant payment initiated by the grant management system.

Finding 6

The Behavioral Health Administration did not use a competitive bid process to award mental health provider supervision grant funding. (p. 21)

Recommendations

The Behavioral Health Administration should use a competitive bid process to award grant funding to qualified grantees.
The Behavioral Health Administration should strengthen its internal controls to ensure it awards grant funding through a competitive bid process.

Finding 7

Prior Audit Finding Not Resolved. The Behavioral Health Administration did not obtain all required progress reports and issued payments to grantees with past-due reports. Some progress reports did not contain all relevant information. (p. 22)

Recommendations

The Behavioral Health Administration should:
- Obtain progress reports on time.
- Not make payments to grantees who have past-due progress reports.
- Retain relevant documentation for progress reports, such as the dates when it receives reports from grantees.
Behavioral Health Administration supervisors should review the work of grant managers to ensure grant managers collect required progress reports before making payments to grantees.

Finding 8

Prior Audit Finding Not Resolved. The Behavioral Health Administration could not demonstrate that it performed some required monitoring visits and did not consistently document some monitoring visits it performed. (p. 24)

Recommendations

The Behavioral Health Administration should conduct all required monitoring visits, properly document those visits, and retain that documentation in grant files, as required by Office of Grants Management policy.
Behavioral Health Administration supervisors should review the work of grant managers to ensure they conduct and document required monitoring visits.

Finding 9

Prior Audit Finding Not Resolved. The Behavioral Health Administration could not demonstrate that it completed financial reconciliations in compliance with Office of Grants Management policy. (p. 26)

Recommendations

Behavioral Health Administration grant managers should perform financial reconciliations in compliance with Office of Grants Management policy and retain relevant documentation supporting these reconciliations.
Behavioral Health Administration supervisors should review financial reconciliations performed by grant managers to ensure these reconciliations are performed in compliance with required policies.

Finding 10

The Behavioral Health Administration made payments to grantees for costs that were either not incurred or not properly supported by source documents. (p. 28)

Recommendations

The Behavioral Health Administration should reconcile reimbursement requests for the identified grantees and determine whether it should recover any payments.
The Behavioral Health Administration should provide guidance to grantees on which costs are eligible for reimbursement and what documentation grantees should retain to support reimbursements.
The Behavioral Health Administration should train grant managers on how to conduct financial reconciliations and what documentation grantees should provide.
Behavioral Health Administration supervisors should review financial reconciliations performed by grant managers and ensure only documented and eligible expenses are reimbursed.

Finding 11

Prior Audit Finding Not Resolved. The Behavioral Health Administration did not complete evaluations of grantee performance, as required by Office of Grants Management policy. (p. 30)

Recommendations

The Behavioral Health Administration should complete grantee performance evaluations on time for all grants, in compliance with Office of Grants Management policy.
Behavioral Health Administration supervisors should review the work of grant managers to ensure they complete grantee performance evaluations on time.

Finding 12

The Legislature did not establish a mechanism for oversight of payments made to certain legislatively named entities. As a result, payments made to these entities were not subject to oversight from the Behavioral Health Administration. (p. 32)

Recommendation

The Legislature should consider whether it wants entities that receive “payments” to be considered grantees and subject to Office of Grants Management policy. If not, the Legislature should identify the type of oversight it expects from the Behavioral Health Administration.

Finding 13

Some Behavioral Health Administration staff described poor leadership practices within the administration, and many staff indicated that they did not receive sufficient training to perform grant management tasks. (p. 33)

Recommendations

The Behavioral Health Administration should continue working on improving its control environment to ensure employees feel prepared and produce quality work.
The Behavioral Health Administration should train its employees on how to manage grants, specifically on how to conduct financial reconciliations.

Office of the Legislative Auditor - Financial Audit Division

Report Summary