7/11/06
http://www.dispatch.com/news-story.php?story=dispatch/2006/07/11/20060711-A1-00.html“Four audits of the Hamilton County Department of Job and Family Services failed to reveal problems that escalated into about $1 billion in possible misspending. Two reviews were part of standard state audits conducted by Auditor Betty D. Montgomery covering 2002 and 2003. Two others were performed by independent accountants at the request of the agency serving Hamilton County’s poor and jobless for the same two years.
The first hint of misspending came in late 2004 in a financial review conducted by Montgomery at the request of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, which administers the programs. It was the first such review conducted on Hamilton County since 1993.
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Jon Allen, spokesman for the state Department of Job and Family Services, yesterday acknowledged that it was unusual to wait a decade to review a county Job and Family Services agency.
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As a result, an election-year financial bailout may be necessary by the legislature as federal regulators are likely to seek the return of some money and impose potentially hefty sanctions on the state.
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