A newly-released audit of the East Baton Rouge Council on Aging finds the agency’s deficit in 2016 grew by nearly 10% over the previous year. Auditors also noted that the COA was unable to account for some of the meals it provides to the elderly and continues to violate its building lease with the city-parish for failing to maintain adequate fire insurance on its Florida Boulevard headquarters.
The audit, released this morning by the Louisiana Legislative Auditor’s office, is the latest black eye for the COA, which has comes under fire since voters last November approved a dedicated property tax that is expected to generate nearly $8 million a year for the council.
As detailed in a recent Business Report cover story, critics have charged the agency has a long history of financial mismanagement and sloppy accounting procedures, and lacks adequate oversight from the Governor’s Office of Elderly Affairs and the Metro Council.
The 2016 audit suggests a continuation of the pattern. According to the audit, prepared by an outside accounting firm, the COA’s deficit in 2016 grew to $221,760 from $202,702 the previous year.
In her written response to the audit, agency CEO Tasha Clark-Amar attributes the deficit to a decrease in revenues. The council received $86,000 less in 2016 from the Governor’s Office of Elderly Affairs and discontinued fundraising programs that had generated $83,000 the year before. Clark-Amar notes, however, that the council received $40,000 more from the city-parish and $39,000 from public contributions in 2016.
Perhaps more significantly, the audit finds that in a test of the COA’s database, 45 of some 2,673 meals the agency provides to the elderly could not be accounted for because the recipients had not signed for them.
“The lack of reconciliations over meal counts may result in unnecessary meal costs being incurred by the council,” the audit reads.
In her response, Clark-Amar says the agency acknowledges the problem, and “will develop policies and procedures” to better monitor and reconcile the database with supporting documents.
Auditors also cited the agency for the third year in a row for failing to maintain $5 million in fire insurance on its headquarters building, which it leases for a nominal fee from the city-parish. The COA maintains only a $2.5 million policy.
As it did last year in its response to the audit finding, the COA says it is planning to relocate to another building but has been unable to occupy the facility because of renovation and construction delays.
Auditors categorize the COA in the report as “a high risk auditee,” and question the agency’s ability to continue as a going concern.
Metro Councilman Buddy Amoroso, who, with councilman Dwight Hudson has been among the fiercest critics of the agency, says this latest audit is more evidence that city-parish leaders need to rethink the way they monitor the COA.
“Once again this audit provides why the council needs oversight,” Amoroso says. “This is an agency that is totally out of control and I am very fearful that our tax dollars are going to be going to these people with the lack of controls that are in place.”
Hudson and Amoroso are pushing a measure that would add provisions to the COA’s cooperative endeavor agreement with the city-parish, giving the Metro Council more oversight. If approved, the measure would let the Metro Council approve or reject COA board members, and require the nonprofit submit regular financial reports to the Metro Council, among other things.
The Governor’s Office of Elderly Affairs referred a call seeking comment to the COA board, saying the audit is an internal affair.
The COA did not return a call seeking comment in time for this morning’s publication. Late last month, however, the agency announced it will create a task force to provide greater input and oversight into how the COA spends its newfound windfall from the dedicated millage.
—Stephanie Riegel
