Report Description:
What Was Performed? An Agreed Upon Procedures (AUP) attestation engagement of the Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS), Division of Substance Abuse and Mental Health (DSAMH), Delaware Psychiatric Center (DPC) Patients’ Trust Fund for Fiscal Year ended June 30,
2019.
Why This Engagement? This engagement was performed in accordance with 29 Del. C. § 2906 and in
response to confidential fraud allegations reported to the Auditor’s Office. The limited scope of procedures
were designed to ensure compliance with specific internal control requirements and 16 Del. C. Chapter 60
Section 6002, 6003, and 6004 which is applicable to any institutions operated, maintained, or under the
supervision of the Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS).
The State Auditor’s Office performed agreed upon procedures on a sample of patients’ trust fund
accounts including verifying interest earned, cash disbursement and cash receipt transactions
applied and reconciled are compliant with the Center’s policy and procedures and the state’s
financial accounting requirements.
DPC, a unit operated under DSAMH, located in New Castle, Delaware, has a 115-bed capacity and had
over $60,000 in Patients’ Trust Fund deposits in Fiscal Year 2019.
What Was Found? Our AUP engagement contains the following results:
• The Patient Trust Fund appropriation received the correct monthly allocation of earnings
in FY2019 from OST and the interest earning correctly posted to the individual patient
account.
• DPC provided their reconcilement of the state accounting system to the unit’s accounting
system for June 30, 2019, however OAOA was unable to reconcile based on documentation
provided.
• OAOA was unable to verify DPC recorded ACH payments to the correct patient account
because no supporting documentation was provided to perform the test procedure.
• DPC did not consistently record manual checks received on the incoming check deposit log.
• DPC did not close deceased patient accounts and discharge the account balances.
• DPC did not have all supporting documentation for cash disbursement transaction including
missing or undetermined authorized signatures and missing supporting documentation
including support for the FSF state accounting system. Further, some transaction dates in
the documentation provided did not match.
The new report, Department of Health and Social Services Delaware Psychiatric Center Patients’
Trust Fund,” can be found here.
Please do not reply to this email. For any questions regarding the attached report, please
contact State Auditor Kathleen K. McGuiness at Kathleen.Mcguiness@delaware.gov.
Professional Standard:
GAO's Yellow Book, Generally Accepted Government Auditing Standards (GAGAS)