Barry L. Price Rehabilitation Center, Inc. Adminstration of Limited Unit Rate Service Agreements

The State Auditor reviewed these payments to check accountability, transparency, and whether human-service contract money was being used properly.

“The overall audit of DDS was conducted as part of OSA’s ongoing efforts to audit human-service contracting activity by state agencies and to promote accountability, transparency, and cost effectiveness in state contracting.”

The report says DDS was using these flexible contracts in ways that could create unnecessary or excessive payments to contractors.

“Instead DDS Regional and Area Office staff have used LUSA contracts to provide additional year-end funding to some DDS human-service contractors for various purposes, many of which are not consistent with the intended use of these funds and resulted in unnecessary and excessive compensation to contractors.”

For an ordinary citizen, this matters because public money should have clear approvals and records showing services were actually provided and not paid for twice.

“The lack of adequate documentation violated provisions of the Commonwealth Terms and Conditions for Human and Social Services, and as a result, there was insufficient evidence to show that these LUSA payments had been properly authorized and accounted for; that they were not duplicative or excessive; and that the contractor had actually provided the LUSA services billed.”

The auditors did not say BLP failed to provide services, but they found the records were not good enough to prove the payments were proper.

“No transactions were found to be properly authorized and documented.”

The report says oversight agencies should review the issues, and BLP should strengthen controls so future services are properly done, documented, billed, and accounted for.

“In accordance with the recommendations of the overall report and the testing results specific to BLP, BLP should implement appropriate control measures to ensure that all LUSA services are performed, documented, billed, and accounted for in compliance with applicable requirements.”

LUSAs are flexible DDS contracts meant for short-term, as-needed services for clients not already covered by another contract.

“LUSAs are a form of a master contract agreement that can be used by DDS to purchase services from a preapproved contractor on an intermittent, limited-time basis for clients who are not already covered through an existing contract.”