An Audit Report on Early Childhood Intervention Services at the Department of Assistive and Rehabilitative Services
August 2007
Report Number 07-043
Overall Conclusion
The Department of Assistive and Rehabilitative Services (Department) has a sufficient process to identify Early Childhood Intervention (ECI) providers that are at risk of noncompliance with program requirements. In addition, the Department's fiscal oversight processes are sufficient to ensure ECI funds are being spent in compliance with contracts and federal and state regulations. The Department could increase the fiscal accountability of ECI providers by obtaining and reviewing supporting documentation for ECI expenditures, conducting more regular on-site fiscal monitoring at all ECI providers, and defining when to impose sanctions on ECI providers that do not comply with the terms and conditions of the ECI contract.
The Department has appropriate processes for reviewing potential ECI providers' funding applications and allocating ECI funding. While these processes are appropriate, the Department does not promote competition for available funding, and it does not consistently ensure that potential ECI providers submit all necessary and required information to support their budgets. This reduces the Department's ability to determine whether it obtains best value to maximize the use of funds.
To assess the Department's monitoring of ECI providers, auditors also conducted on-site audits at two ECI providers: the Easter Seals Rehabilitation Center ECI in San Antonio and Any Baby Can Child and Family Resource Center (Any Baby Can) in Austin. At Easter Seals, auditors identified $337,750 in unauthorized expenditures for fiscal year 2006. The Department had not conducted an on-site fiscal monitoring visit at Easter Seals since 1999. Auditors separately communicated other issues identified at Easter Seals directly to Easter Seals management and the members of its board (see Appendix 5 for a copy of the letter sent to Easter Seals and Easter Seals' management responses). At Any Baby Can, auditors identified $3,697 in unauthorized expenditures for fiscal year 2006. This ECI provider's last on-site fiscal monitoring visit by the Department was in 2005.
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