WCBC

February 12th, 2015 by WCBC Radio

The Cumberland Times News reports State auditors said they found no problems at the Thomas B. Finan Hospital Center in a report released Thursday. “Our audit did not disclose any significant deficiencies in the design or operation of the center’s internal control. Our audit also did not disclose any significant instances of noncompliance with applicable laws, rules or regulations,” according to the audit. In addition, the Finan Center fixed some problems noted in a 2012 audit. In 2012, the audit found problems with documentation for some procurements and that corporate purchasing cards were not promptly canceled when employees were terminated. “The Thomas B. Finan Center lacked documentation, in certain instances, to support its compliance with State Procurement Regulations. Specifically, our test of 20 payments, totaling approximately $263,000, disclosed that the center did not have required documentation to support the procurement process, such as written solicitations and sole-source justifications, for 10 payments totaling approximately $96,000,” the 2012 audit said. At that time, center officials said they would work to fix the problems. The audits are performed by the Office of Legislative Audits of the Department of Legislative Services. The auditors did have points of focus for the current audit. “In planning and conducting our audit, we focused on the major financial-related areas of operations based on assessments of significance and risk. The areas addressed by the audit included disbursements for the center’s operating expenditures, as well as payroll and pharmaceutical inventories,” according to the audit report. The Finan Center provides mental health services to adults in Maryland, auditors said. The center is accredited by the Joint Commission, formerly the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations. During fiscal 2014, the center had a licensed capacity of 110 inpatients, a budgeted average daily population of 88 inpatients and an actual average daily population of 86 inpatients. According to the state’s records, the center’s operating expenditures totaled approximately $18.7 million during fiscal 2014, auditors said.