News
Denver County will reimburse state officials $82,788 after auditors questioned how almost $3 million was spent to improve child care throughout the city, officials said Wednesday.
Auditors found that child-care centers paid for drywall projects, concrete, Target gift cards and thousands of dollars in books on Amazon.com with money intended to boost enrollment and quality in child-care programs throughout the city.
But the state is blaming Denver County officials — not the day-care centers — because they approved the expenditures to begin with.
"We're not going after the child-care providers," said Leslie Bulicz, a child-care administrator at the Colorado Department of Human Services. "Denver was managing the grants specifically, their staff had to be more informed. . . . Denver could definitely do something differently."
Denver County received $4.2 million in federal funds from the state in 2005. The money was supposed to go toward growing and improving the Colorado Child Care Assistance Program, which provides day-care help to low-income families.
Day-care providers across the city applied for the money to do staff training and expand facilities.
The Denver Department of Human Services contracted out the oversight responsibility to the Mayor's Office for Education and Children, headed by Maria Guajardo.
Guajardo's office approved several expenditures that were not allowed under the grant, including building expansions and certain types of instructional materials.
Guajardo said Wednesday that "100 percent" of the dollars spent "bore fruit."
$11,000 for expansion
"We saw the dollars improve the quality of investments in the city," she said. "I think auditors are in charge of fiscal oversight, so they came in and did their job and, being on the receiving end of that, it's really informed us."
The Children's Corner Learning Center in 2006 spent more than $11,000 expanding into a second building, buying concrete, drywall and electric and plumbing work with the money — though the federal guidelines specifically forbid the money to be used for buying, improving or expanding buildings.
The center's president, Stacie Guidie, said Wednesday that she never knew of a federal prohibition, and her use of the money was approved by the city at the time. She said she also purchased thousands of dollars in books online.
"Everything I did was documented with receipts and everything was preapproved," Guidie said, noting she spent her personal money on the project up front and then had to wait for Denver County to reimburse her. "If it wasn't right, they wouldn't have approved me to begin with. It was never mentioned that we weren't doing the right thing."
Of the original $4.2 million given to Denver, state auditors said that $2.8 million either didn't have proper documentation receipts or was questionable.
With such a large percentage of money unable to be verified, the auditor's office asked the state Department of Human Services to look into what was happening in Denver County.
State officials probed only $1.06 million of that $2.8 million and found about 3 percent — or $31,787 — was actually misspent. A small amount in one case was even spent on alcohol.
State officials pushed Denver County to pay for an independent audit of the remaining $1.7 million to see whether there was misspending there, but Denver officials said that would be too onerous with a thinned-out staff.
In 2009, 43 people were let go at the Denver Department of Human Services because of budget cuts.
The two sides agreed this week that Denver County would pay out $82,788 — or 3 percent of the $2.8 million in original questionable costs, even though more than half of that money has not been reviewed by an auditor.
"Some lessons learned"
Guajardo said 100 child-care sites and almost 7,000 children saw positive things come from the money, including staff training.
Denver Department of Human Services spokeswoman Revekka Balancier said her agency trusted the Mayor's Office of Education and Children to spend the money correctly and the agency should have been stricter with the office.
Since the audit, Denver Human Services is now treating other city departments the same as they do outside contractors — requiring them to provide line-by-line receipts and payroll registers.
"There were some lessons learned," Balancier said. "Internal agencies in the city must be held to the same standard as our vendors. The expenditures should have been monitored more closely."
Auditors found that child-care centers paid for drywall projects, concrete, Target gift cards and thousands of dollars in books on Amazon.com with money intended to boost enrollment and quality in child-care programs throughout the city.
But the state is blaming Denver County officials — not the day-care centers — because they approved the expenditures to begin with.
"We're not going after the child-care providers," said Leslie Bulicz, a child-care administrator at the Colorado Department of Human Services. "Denver was managing the grants specifically, their staff had to be more informed. . . . Denver could definitely do something differently."
Denver County received $4.2 million in federal funds from the state in 2005. The money was supposed to go toward growing and improving the Colorado Child Care Assistance Program, which provides day-care help to low-income families.
Day-care providers across the city applied for the money to do staff training and expand facilities.
The Denver Department of Human Services contracted out the oversight responsibility to the Mayor's Office for Education and Children, headed by Maria Guajardo.
Guajardo's office approved several expenditures that were not allowed under the grant, including building expansions and certain types of instructional materials.
Guajardo said Wednesday that "100 percent" of the dollars spent "bore fruit."
$11,000 for expansion
"We saw the dollars improve the quality of investments in the city," she said. "I think auditors are in charge of fiscal oversight, so they came in and did their job and, being on the receiving end of that, it's really informed us."
The Children's Corner Learning Center in 2006 spent more than $11,000 expanding into a second building, buying concrete, drywall and electric and plumbing work with the money — though the federal guidelines specifically forbid the money to be used for buying, improving or expanding buildings.
The center's president, Stacie Guidie, said Wednesday that she never knew of a federal prohibition, and her use of the money was approved by the city at the time. She said she also purchased thousands of dollars in books online.
"Everything I did was documented with receipts and everything was preapproved," Guidie said, noting she spent her personal money on the project up front and then had to wait for Denver County to reimburse her. "If it wasn't right, they wouldn't have approved me to begin with. It was never mentioned that we weren't doing the right thing."
Of the original $4.2 million given to Denver, state auditors said that $2.8 million either didn't have proper documentation receipts or was questionable.
With such a large percentage of money unable to be verified, the auditor's office asked the state Department of Human Services to look into what was happening in Denver County.
State officials probed only $1.06 million of that $2.8 million and found about 3 percent — or $31,787 — was actually misspent. A small amount in one case was even spent on alcohol.
State officials pushed Denver County to pay for an independent audit of the remaining $1.7 million to see whether there was misspending there, but Denver officials said that would be too onerous with a thinned-out staff.
In 2009, 43 people were let go at the Denver Department of Human Services because of budget cuts.
The two sides agreed this week that Denver County would pay out $82,788 — or 3 percent of the $2.8 million in original questionable costs, even though more than half of that money has not been reviewed by an auditor.
"Some lessons learned"
Guajardo said 100 child-care sites and almost 7,000 children saw positive things come from the money, including staff training.
Denver Department of Human Services spokeswoman Revekka Balancier said her agency trusted the Mayor's Office of Education and Children to spend the money correctly and the agency should have been stricter with the office.
Since the audit, Denver Human Services is now treating other city departments the same as they do outside contractors — requiring them to provide line-by-line receipts and payroll registers.
"There were some lessons learned," Balancier said. "Internal agencies in the city must be held to the same standard as our vendors. The expenditures should have been monitored more closely."
