{"id":13722,"date":"2020-09-09T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-09-09T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/?p=13722"},"modified":"2020-09-08T18:10:19","modified_gmt":"2020-09-08T22:10:19","slug":"complaints-to-inspector-general-up-92-in-fy20","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/?p=13722","title":{"rendered":"Complaints to Inspector General Up 92% in FY20"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Adam Pagnucco.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

MoCo Inspector General (IG) Megan Davey Limarzi has released her office\u2019s annual report for Fiscal Year 2020<\/a> and it\u2019s a doozy. The prior year was a very busy one for her and her staff!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The headline from her report is an obvious one \u2013 the phenomenal rise in complaints in FY20, the first full year of the new administration. The IG wrote, \u201cWe received 165 complaints in FY2020. This represents a 92% increase from FY2019.\u201d The IG noted that her office\u2019s authority was extended to the Housing Opportunities Commission and Montgomery College in October 2019 but she does not credit that for the rise in complaints. Instead, she said, \u201cWe attribute the increase in complaints to expanded outreach efforts and the perceived effectiveness of our reviews and investigations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This chart in the IG\u2019s report shows skyrocketing complaints in the most recent fiscal year.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The report summarizes numerous IG reports, including some that have already attracted press coverage: the overtime \u201cscam\u201d in the fire department<\/a>, the report on former Chief Administrative Officer Andrew Kleine\u2019s ethics violations<\/a> and the report about MCPS\u2019s bus camera contract<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two additional reports stand out. The first concerns the county\u2019s Office of Human Resources (OHR). The IG wrote:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We initiated a review based on numerous complaints alleging improper practices within the Office of Human Resources (OHR), including internal hiring processes, assignment of employee salaries and use of contractors.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We found that OHR did not follow normal competitive procurement processes when they awarded four contracts to one individual in an apparent attempt at splitting purchases to avoid contracting thresholds. In total, OHR made $184,900 in payments to the individual or a company they controlled. To facilitate some of the payments, OHR inappropriately used the \u201cexempt\u201d commodity code associated with collective bargaining, falsely indicating that County procurement requirements did not apply.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second concerns the Department of Health and Human Services. The IG wrote:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The OIG conducted an investigation based on a complaint alleging a Montgomery County Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) manager misused Recovery Oriented Systems of Care (ROSC) grant funds resulting in a referral to the State\u2019s Attorney\u2019s Office. Through our investigation, we found evidence that the County DHHS manager engaged in a clear pattern of mismanagement and violations of County procurement regulations regarding the management of ROSC funds.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was anyone disciplined for these violations?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The IG\u2019s office, part of the legacy of former Council Member and former County Executive Ike Leggett<\/a>, is one of the most valuable offices in MoCo government. With ten thousand people working for the county, there is bound to be some mischief going on and taxpayers deserve to know about it. That said, since the office has been around for more than 20 years and is therefore known to many county employees, it\u2019s an open question as to whether expanded outreach alone is responsible for the astounding eruption in complaints last year. The county council should ask the executive branch why complaints to the IG have exploded under its watch.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Adam Pagnucco. MoCo Inspector General (IG) Megan Davey Limarzi has released her office\u2019s annual report for Fiscal Year 2020 and it\u2019s a doozy. The prior year was a very busy one for her and her staff! The headline from her report is an obvious one \u2013 the phenomenal rise in complaints in FY20, the … Continue reading Complaints to Inspector General Up 92% in FY20<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[151],"tags":[1545,2398],"class_list":["post-13722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adam-pagnucco","tag-adam-pagnucco","tag-inspector-general"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4mKJE-3zk","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13722"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13722\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13730,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13722\/revisions\/13730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}