An Audit Report on Residential Child Care Contract Management at the Department of Family and Protective Services
April 2007
Report Number 07-030
Overall Conclusion
The Department of Family and Protective Services (Department) has developed contract policies and procedures to ensure that:
- It contracts with qualified residential child care providers.
- The payments it makes to those providers are for the delivery of quality services to children in their care.
Providers deliver residential child care services through unit rate contracts with the Department. Under these contracts, providers are paid an amount per child per day.
While the Department has policies and procedures to ensure that it contracts with qualified providers, it has not maintained adequate staffing levels to effectively perform its contracting processes. The Department originally hired qualified applicants to fill the 16 positions in its Residential Contracts Division. However, from September 2005 through January 2007, two individuals at the managerial level resigned and eight residential contract managers resigned. As of January 2007, 4 of the 16 positions remained vacant. In addition, the Department does not provide formal, job-specific training to contract managers in managing and monitoring providers and using the Department's case management system.
The high turnover in contract manager positions has required the remaining contract managers to manage higher workloads, which has limited their ability to perform their responsibilities thoroughly. The normal workload for a contract manager is highly complex and involves:
- Managing the contract procurement process for new providers and the contract renewal process for existing providers.
- Performing an annual risk assessment of all providers.
- Continuously conducting on-site monitoring of high-risk provider services and financial activities.
- Participating in special assignments, including after-hours and emergency situations.
In addition, the Department should strengthen certain aspects of its contract procurement, renewal, and monitoring processes to improve its ability to ensure that providers comply with the terms of their contracts.
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