Auditor criticizes
state CPS progressA report says the child welfare
agency failed to address problemsLingle criticizes tone of audits
State Auditor Marion Higa issued a stinging criticism of the state Child Protective Services yesterday, saying "there is no evidence that children are better off today than they were four years ago," when her office last looked at the agency.
In a 48-page follow-up to her 1999 study, Higa said that the CPS system is plagued by inconsistent enforcement decisions and poor communication with the state Family Court and police.
The agency, which investigates nearly 7,000 cases of child abuse and neglect each year, also wastes thousands of taxpayer dollars by failing to adequately keep track of money it pays to outside vendors, Higa said.
"Despite the department's efforts to improve overall delivery of Child Protective Services, significant problems persist, and there is no evidence that children are better off today than they were four years ago," she said.
Higa's criticisms come on the heels of a federal government study last month that cited major deficiencies to the CPS system. In its preliminary findings last month, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services found that high caseloads and limited resources have hampered the state's ability to protect isle children at risk.
Lillian Koller, director of the state Department of Human Services, which oversees the CPS system, acknowledged that her agency has not met all the benchmarks set out in Higa's 1999 report. But she said the agency has made significant improvements in many areas.
Koller also said the state is working with the federal government to establish realistic reforms of the child welfare system.
Gov. Linda Lingle said she has not read Higa's report, but she noted that last month's federal inspection of Hawaii's child welfare system "was helpful to everybody to understand that there's some things they are doing that are very good and there are areas of improvement, and those are the ones we want to focus on."
Lingle said her administration is looking to other states to see what they are doing to provide more information to help in making decisions. In particular, Lingle said her administration is looking at proposals to relax the state's confidentiality laws so CPS social workers can better communicate with agencies such as police, physicians and the Family Court.
"The Family Court makes a lot of the decisions, and because so much of what goes on is protected information, I think we don't get a good, full picture of the basis for a lot of the decision-making," Lingle said.
Higa's report faulted the state for a number of communication and reporting lapses, which she said increased the risk to suspected victims of child abuse and neglect. Based on a review of 50 existing CPS cases, the audit found:
>> Thirteen instances where CPS social workers failed to report allegations of abuse and neglect to the police, as required by law.
>> Eleven cases in which social workers failed to make a determination within 60 days that abuse or neglect had occurred. Some determinations took as long as 100 days. (Under department rules, social workers are required to make such a determination within 60 days of receiving a report of alleged abuse or neglect.)
>> Six instances in which a child remained in voluntary placement beyond the 60-day, statutory limit. One of those children had been placed in foster care for five months before the department got around to petitioning the Family Court for jurisdiction.
Higa also faulted the state for failing to adequately keep track of its payments to its outside vendors and foster parents.
One outside contractor was overpaid more than $13,000, while several foster care operators received $11,000 in questionable payments after the foster children were already removed from their custody.
"We found many of the deficiencies revealed in our 1999 audit continue today," Higa said.
Star-Bulletin reporter Crystal Kua contributed to this report.
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Lingle criticizes tone
of audit reports
State Auditor Marion Higa and Gov. Linda Lingle disagree on whether the auditor's office is taking on an adversarial role with the new state administration as it has with previous administrations.
"I can see it starting now because of the inflammatory style of writing of the auditor's office, the unwillingness to accept information, clarification, elaboration on points that are in her draft audits," Lingle said. "I'm hearing from the directors ... saying the same kinds of things I've heard before."
Higa disagreed with the governor's characterization.
"I wouldn't agree it's an inflammatory style of writing. It's a question of one's perception or one's point of view where you are in the whole picture," Higa said. "We don't accept information from departments that's unverified by us. Simply because they assert something, we're not going to change our text."
Lingle's comments came after the release of a follow-up audit of Child Protective Services. The initial audit was conducted four years ago.
Lingle said the CPS audit is another example of how problems remained years after an initial audit pointed them out. She would like to see valid recommendations implemented so that things get better.
"I don't blame anybody. I've been observing the process now for many years and in my conversation with Mrs. Higa through the years. She verified there were frustrations that her reports just go on a shelf. I mean, they're a one-day story in the paper usually, and then it's on to the next audit," Lingle said.
Lingle said the audits are valuable because an outside, objective party points out problems within a department. She also said her department directors are committed to making changes but have expressed problems with Higa's audits.
"If you look at every audit, it's always written in that style. Our directors in their responses try to be factual and to the point and offer elaborations or additional information, and they just don't see that being taken into consideration," Lingle said. "(The auditor's office will) say, 'Well, we acknowledge it.' But they don't go back and rethink what they wrote in the report or the style of the report."
But Higa pointed out that agency responses are always part of the audit. "We give them the same audience that we get by including their response almost all the time in its entirety."
Higa said because her staff works closely with department staff in gathering the information necessary for the audit, the results or findings are usually not a shock.
Higa said the trend across the country in the audit community is against getting involved in implementing recommendations -- that is the job of the executive branch.
"There will be honest disagreements over recommendations, and we accept that could happen, but if they agree to the recommendations, then the ball's in their court," Higa said.
