Audit of Contracted Human Services, July 2018

8 |  A u d i t o f C o n t r a c t e d H u m a n S e r v i c e s  J u l y 2 0 1 8 2. Sufficient documentation submitted in support of the payment request’s monetary  reimbursement. Observation  The contractual agreement requires that agencies submit supporting documentation along with  their monthly/quarterly request for payment. In order to determine that the agencies are  compliant with this provision, a total of 26 agencies were selected for testing. For the 18  agencies making monthly payment requests, the most recent three months were tested. For  the 8 on a quarterly schedule, the most recent quarter was tested.  Of the 26 sampled agencies, it was determined that thirteen did not submit sufficient  documentation for each month/quarter tested. The documentation submitted were summary  reports with no additional detail. Summary reports should be accompanied by detail  documentation (such as staff hours, visit information, or daily sign in sheets) that can be tied  directly to the summaries.  It was observed that Health and Human Services performs annual performance reviews of  awarded agencies. These reviews involve inspecting files and evaluating detailed  documentation in support of previously submitted payment requests. Because the review is  only conducted annually, it is possible that an agency could inappropriately receive funding and  this would not be detected until the annual review.  Recommendation To ensure compliance with the contractual provisions, Health and Human Services should  require that all agencies submit sufficiently detailed supporting documentation with payment  requests. Summary reports should be accompanied by the supporting detail and the detail  should properly tie to the summary.  Management Response  Sarasota County Human Services manages over $9.7 million through service contracts with 37  agencies and 91 programs serving residents in need of critical services across eight human  services systems.   Our staff has a high level of confidence that services are being delivered as  required by our contracted vendors due to numerous activities our staff oversees within the  human services systems.   Beyond, the formal collection of documents, annual monitoring, and  onsite visits to verify reports to backup documentation, we deploy Human Service Policy  Coordination staff to monitor service delivery through facilitating regular stakeholders  meetings, convening vendors and stakeholders to improve service delivery, tracking service  utilization, and coordination of effective service delivery with the programs’ other  funders.  Several of our vendors’ records contain protected personal information, therefore  when any questions have arisen regarding specific service delivery staff has been successful by