By LOU CHIBBARO JR.
The office managers in charge of another two organizations funded by HAA contracts were unsure or unaware of whether their respective groups provided services to people with HIV or AIDS, the Inspector General’s audit found, creating doubts about whether the groups were carrying out the terms of their contracts.
According to the audit, which reviewed HAA’s operations between 2002 through 2004, the sites for another three organizations with HAA contracts were “inaccessible” to the public or clients in need of AIDS-related services. And six more service-providing organizations funded by HAA were not operating at the address listed for them on their contract agreements, even though the incorrect addresses were “verified” by HAA grant monitors who were supposed to have made on-site visits.
Officials with the Inspector General’s Office disclosed these and other problems associated with HAA’s management of AIDS service providers during a hearing on March 17 conducted by the D.C. Council’s Committee on Health.
Gay D.C. Councilmember David Catania (I-At-Large), who chairs the committee, said he directed three officials from the Inspector General’s Office who testified before the committee to withhold the identities of the AIDS service organizations described in the audit. Catania said he wanted to give HAA officials time to review the audit before the providers in question are named.
Lydia Watts, an assistant director of the D.C. Department of Health in charge of HAA, and Dr. Gregg Payne, director of the Department of Health, testified during the hearing and were present during the testimony of the Inspector General officials. Catania urged the two to take action to correct the problems identified in the audit.
“I think you need to be informed, as does the community, that we’re paying for services and this is kind of the quality we’re getting,” Catania told Watts.
Payne meets with providers
The hearing took place three days after Payne took the unusual step of meeting with representatives of all of the HAA-funded providers in a session in which Watts and all other HAA officials were barred from attending.
“The purpose of having a providers-only meeting was to create a forum for open discussion,” said DOH spokesperson Leila Abrar.
AIDS activists have said many providers have been reluctant to speak out about their concerns about HAA out of fear that HAA would reduce or eliminate their funding.
William J. Divello, assistant inspector general for audits for the Inspector General’s Office, testified that the HAA audit was not yet complete, although he said “a substantial amount of audit work has been performed.” He said his office agreed to release to the committee the information uncovered by the audit at Catania’s request.
Catania said he needed the information to help frame questions for HAA witnesses at the hearing, which he said is aimed at helping HAA correct longstanding problems at the AIDS agency. Council members Jack Evans (D-Ward 2), Jim Graham (D-Ward 1), and Vincent Gray (D-Ward 7) joined Catania in questioning witnesses during the hearing.
As he stated in a March 3 hearing, in which the committee began its oversight review of HAA, Catania pointed out that much of the problems associated with HAA began long before Watts started in her HAA director’s post last September.
But Catania and the other Council members reiterated the criticism they leveled at Watts during the March 3 hearing over her decision to spend $450,000 to produce and videotape a World AIDS Day town hall meeting and cocktail party-reception. Watts has defended that decision, saying the expenditure included the production of several videos that would be used to educate women on how to avoid becoming infected with HIV.
Graham told Watts he was troubled that the $450,000 expenditure on World AIDS Day events came at the same time HAA made about $400,000 in cuts for AIDS prevention programs that, among other things, targeted black and white gay men and transgendered persons.
Divello of the Inspector General’s Office testified that problems associated with the AIDS service providers, which he referred to as “subgrantees,” appear to be linked to HAA’s failure to provide adequate supervision and on-site visits to the providers in question.
“Our review found that none of the 35 subgrantees had been provided the four required yearly site visits,” he told the committee. “Site visits are performed to determine if the subgrantees are achieving their goals and deliverables outlined in the grant agreement,” he said.
He said the audit found that the 11 grant monitors on HAA’s payroll “had more than adequate time available in the work year to conduct all required site visits.”
“We conducted a telephone survey of 55 subgrantees,” Divello said. “The results of our survey revealed that 13 subgrantees could not be contacted via telephone.”
This prompted him to direct members of his staff to conduct on-site visits to the providers while they posed as citizens seeking HIV-related services or information about the services.
Empty offices get HIV grants
LaDonia Wilkins, one of the Inspector General staff members who visited the providers’ offices, said at least two of the providers’ offices did not appear to be doing anything related to AIDS work or public health.
“We found that there were no pamphlets or literature pertaining to information on HIV/AIDS, and there were empty offices,” Wilkins told the committee. “It just didn’t look like work was being done.”
Divello said the audit found these additional problems associated with HAA’s management of AIDS service providers:
Torres named as LGBT specialist
In a related development, Department of Health spokesperson Leila Abrar confirmed that former HAA interim director Ivan Torres has been named to fill the newly created post of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender specialist for the DOH.
“Mr. Torres’ background and experience both within and outside the District government has led us to believe he is the correct person for this position,” Abrar said. Torres is transitioning out of his old position at HAA and will be located in his new position at 825 North Capitol Street, NE, she said.
Torres’ appointment to the new post is likely to draw criticism from some gay and AIDS activists, who have pointed out that many of the problems associated with HAA occurred on his watch as HAA’s interim director.
He served as interim director from 2003 until Watts started in September 2004. Prior to his tenure as HAA interim director, Torres served as one of the chief lieutenants to former HAA director and DOH official Ronald Lewis.
D.C. City Administrator Robert Bobb removed Lewis from his post as chief operating officer at DOH last year after conducting an internal review of the department and HAA. Bobb said his review found serious, ongoing problems that prompted him to make a number of staff changes.
Sources familiar with the department said that prior to his removal from DOH, Lewis remained as de facto head of HAA during his tenure as DOH chief operating officer, with Torres taking directions from him.
D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams created the position of LGBT specialist at DOH at the request of his gay community advisory committee last year. Wanda Alston, director of Williams’ LGBT Affairs office, who died last week in a murder that rocked the city, was a lead advocate for the LGBT health position.
Former Whitman-Walker Clinic head Cornelius Baker and gay D.C. Council member Graham joined Alston in calling on the mayor to create the position.
In written testimony submitted to the March 17 Council hearing, Bob Summersgill, treasurer and health policy advocate for the Gay & Lesbian Activists Alliance, said GLAA believes the new LGBT post at the DOH could be helpful to the community. But Summersgill said he opposes Torres’s appointment to the position, saying Torres “should have long ago been fired from HAA for gross incompetence.”
Summersgill said Torres has repeatedly “obstructed” efforts by GLAA, a small group of long-time local activists, to obtain information about how HAA spends its money and allocates its grant awards.
Torres did not return a call seeking comment by press time.
http://www.washblade.com/2005/3-25/news/national/haafund.cfm