What particular skill set is needed to be appointed Family Court Judge in Delaware?
Apparently, heading an Agency that the US DOJ Inspector General determined that $829,000 of tax payer money was essentially unaccounted for, citing theft and gross mismanagement as the causes.
At the end of the article I have provided the actual investigation and the results thereof.
James Mcgiffin was appointed as Judge in the Kent County Family Court last year.
He worked for the (Delaware) Community Legal Aid Society (CLASI) for a total of 27 years as Senior Staff Attorney and the Executive Director from 1998 - 2005.
Over a four year period, the agency he directed - the Delaware Community Legal Aid Society received $891,000.00 in Federal grant money (tax payer), this dispensed by the Office of the Violence Against Women in Washington, D.C. (OVW) .
The OVW is the Federal Agency that is responsible for facilitating, allocating and distributing Federal funding to individual states and the respective agencies within the state.
The purpose of this particular OVW grant program was to provide legal services to victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, and/or stalking. The objective of the CLASI grant was to provide legal representation to victims in family court matters, including divorce and divorce-related matters, and other matters related to domestic violence
In 2010, the United States Department of Justice Inspector General conducted an official audit regarding the Federal Funds received from the Office of the Violence Against Women (OVW).
The audit covered the start of the initial grant award period in July 2005 to the closure of the final grant in September 2009.
During the time that James Mcgiffin was both the Senior Staff Attorney and the Executive Director of the Agency, there was a mystery as to how $829,000 dollars allocated to the his Agency was spent.
The US DOJ Inspector General determined there was documented theft and gross mismanagement, of which the Agency had become entangled.
The following are actual excerpts from the US DOJ Inspector General investigation:
The Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General (OIG), Audit Division, has completed an audit of an Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) Legal Assistance for Victims Grant Program award, grant number 2005-WL-AX-0056, awarded to the Community Legal Aid Society, Inc. (CLASI). Between July 2005 and September 2007, OVW awarded CLASI a total of $891,422 distributed through a grant and two supplements.
we are questioning $829,340 of grant funded expenditures, or 93 percent of
the grant award, as unsupported and unallowable expenditures.
We determined that CLASI was in material non-compliance with the grant requirements we tested. Specifically, we reviewed CLASI’s compliance with eight essential grant conditions and found material weaknesses with its internal control environment, grant expenditures, monitoring of contractors, and budget management and control. Because of the deficiencies identified, we are questioning $829,340 of grant funded expenditures,
The Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General (OIG), Audit Division, has completed an audit of an Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) Legal Assistance for Victims Grant Program award, grant number 2005-WL-AX-0056, awarded to the Community Legal Aid Society, Inc. (CLASI). Between July 2005 and September 2007, OVW awarded CLASI a total of $891,422 distributed through a grant and two supplements.
Finding 07-3 Payroll Reconciliations – “…the payroll clerk was both recording and preparing the monthly reconciliations. [Because of turnover] during the year, and in response, the payroll clerk assumed greater responsibility. However, if payroll reconciliations are performed by individuals who have the ability to post payroll disbursement activities to the general ledger, the effectiveness of the control may be compromised.”
Finding 07-4 Management Approval of payroll – “…the organization did not have a member of management approve the information that was submitted to the payroll company by the payroll clerk. Not having an approval of this information increases the risk of fraudulent activity within the payroll department. This condition was directly related to lack of risk assessment policies and internal control deficiencies within the organization. The ultimate effect of this deficiency was fraudulent activity within the payroll department.”
Finding 07-5 Misappropriation of Funds – “…the payroll clerk overpaid herself a gross amount of $6,860.79. These overpayments were noted in four pay periods, May, July, September and December. In the employee termination-of-employment letter dated April 11, 2008, the organization identified all of the amounts misappropriated, the reasons for misappropriations and the dates of fraudulent activity. [The auditors] reviewed the documentation relating to the pending litigation and noted that the amounts agree to this termination letter. Per discussions with management and review of internal controls, the auditors noted that the reason this was possible was due to a lack of internal control within the business department. During the periods when the business department had appropriate personnel to adhere to internal control policies, the employee was unable to misappropriate funds. During the course of the audit, the former employee was found guilty of five of seven counts for misappropriation of funds.”
Finding 07-6 Stale Checks – “…there were several stale checks being reported on the bank reconciliations. Stale checks are payments that have been outstanding for greater than 60 days. This situation occurred because there has been no policy in place during previous years to write off amounts.
Finding 07-16 Payroll Grant Allocations – “The employee who was performing this process was terminated on April 6, 2008. New Business Office personnel are following the procedure to correctly allocate time reported on timesheets to the grants.”
This following excerpt is a biggie the leadership of the Delaware Community Legal Aid Society was required to report any problems or issues experienced with the proper dissemination of the grant money. They, in essence kept the information from the OVW:
"We asked CLASI officials about whether any incidents of fraud or any other illegal acts or irregularities occurred during the period of the OVW grant we reviewed. We were told about a misappropriation of funds not specific to the OVW grant that involved unauthorized payroll disbursements made by a CLASI employee. CLASI officials identified the fraud and took appropriate actions to address the issue. We discussed this issue with OVW and determined that it was not aware of this misappropriation, nor was CLASI designated as a high-risk grantee as a result of such an issue. According to an OVW official, “OVW is in the process of inquiring as to why CLASI did not make the high-risk list which would have been a factor considered in determining their grant award. At the very least, their award would have contained the high-risk conditions.”
Yes indeed, welcome to the First State.
G.
https://oig.justice.gov/grants/2010/g7010005.pdf
No comments:
Post a Comment