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Show Inadequate control resulted in Timp extravagances $ Area residents are feeling a sense of outrage as details about corrupt business practices and the misuse of funds at the Timpanogos Community Mental Health Center are made public. Questionable practices at the center include top officials of-ficials contracting with themselves to do the work they were hired to do and get paid for the same job two or even three times. They include exorbitant credit card allowances for private purchases. Managers were permitted to charge their travel expenses, then pass their bills along to the center. When the credit card bill came in, the center paid for that, too. In other words, the managers making the trip not only had their expenses covered, but were paid the amount of the trip expense in addition - and the center paid the travel expense twice. One manager bought apartments and then rented them to the center at above-market prices. And instead of assuming the usual responsibilities of upkeep expected ex-pected by landlords, the center paid for upgrading the property as well. And the list of abuse goes on and on, adding up to more than $3.5 million in extra costs at Timp Mental Health since January 1984 -- that's state money, earmarked for treatment of the mentally ill, but instead ending up in the pockets of the individuals trusted with the care of the mentally ill. How could it have happened? How did they get away with it for so long? Who should have caught them? How can we make sure it doesn't happen again? Is there anyone who has read this story who doesn't wonder about each of these questions? The report by the Legislative Auditor General, who wrote the report that blew the lid off Timp Mental Health, makes it clear that the practices which ultimately cost $3.5 million started innocently enough. It's common for such facilities to use contracts to fulfill necessary functions, rather than using hourly employees. At some point the contracts were offered to hourly employees as a means to give the employees raises without changing their hourly work agreements. Without proper policies established governing how such contracts were to be administered, the practice became commonplace at Timp Mental Health, with top administrators contracting with themselves to do work that could easily have been considered to already be part of their responsibilities. Each year the amount of money passed along to these managers through contracts grew. In 1987, the management at Timp Mental Health was paid three times the amount earned by their counterparts at similar mental health centers. And there is little doubt the individuals receiving the inflated paychecks feel they were worth the money they paid themselves. That's the only way such respected individuals could justify such questionable practices. The report says the use of contracts, made in secret, hid the hefty incomes of Timp Mental Health's top managers from the independent auditor who didn't probe deeply enough, and who accepted questionable documentation with no hesitation. The report also lays the blame at the feet of two other public bodies - the Timp Mental Health Board, made up of one member of the commissions of Utah, Web Summit counties, and the State Division of A?atl(i , Health. Cental J'i These public "watchdogs," through inaction all the managers of Timp Mental Health to takefZ? very poor indeed, the mentally ill, so they could themselves lavishly. Pay The entire episode reflectes poorly on the w mitment of these professionals to care for the need J their patients. It also demonstrates the necessity i'l,rl established procedures where public monies are rif"; volved, even when such procedures seem to be mor an annoyance than a safeguard. eI P'' The Timp Mental Health Center can survive, becau underneath this top heavy layer of high 'paid 2 ministrators there is a core of dedicated workers wh 3 want to serve the needs of the mentally ill. 0 4 i fi ft But proper policies must be established and followed ' regarding all the areas uncovered by the legislative audit. And the people we elect, in good faith, to look : after the public's welfare must take that responsibility ' seriously enough to look closely into such operations. ! Annual audits that would strike fear into the hearts o( f any administrator must be a matter of course. 0 The abuses of public trust uncovered at the Timp 1 ' Mental Health Center are an example of what can I f happen when public funds and government contracts 0 are not painstakingly protected. ! Otherwise, the opportunities for abuse are too many 1 !l and the safeguards for the public are too few. ' $ |
