OKLAHOMA CITY — On Wednesday afternoon, State Auditor Cindy Byrd released a shocking new report showing tens of millions of dollars in pandemic funds were misspent and now the federal government wants its money back.
Part of the money was used to overcharge the state, some of it was spent on home renovations, and the auditor said some state officials even gave money to their own spouses.
The tough part, Byrd said, is that the Trump Treasury Department now said they want some of their misspent money back, and once they see what it was spent on, they might want more than just the money they asked for.
The federal government was giving away money generously during the pandemic. Presently, State Auditor Cindy Byrd released another audit where the State of Oklahoma misspent tens of millions of dollars in funds that were given away like presents at Christmas.
“Pre-COVID, we were reporting around $5 million a year in questioned costs. This year, we’re at $93 million,” said Byrd. “I would leave it as I’m alarmed by this number, and we need to do better.”
Byrd placed blame on Wednesday at the Oklahoma Office of Management and Enterprise Services (OMES) and the Oklahoma Department of Human Services (DHS).
Byrd said in total, both agencies misspent $93.4 million. Byrd said OMES let a nonprofit contractor run wild and overcharge the state in management fees and other misspending and when questioned, the agency’s previous leadership said it was fine.
“Even though it was a pandemic, and even though there was a flood of money, there should’ve been qualified people who understood what the requirements were and knew how to properly document an expenditure to probe what it was spent for,” said Byrd.
At DHS, it’s much worse. $63.6 million in money meant to help families pay for childcare and daycares to stay open when kids had to stay home being spent on things like granite counter tops, bathroom renovations, and someone even paid off a Cadillac.
“There were several instances of home daycares taking child development funds and using them for lavish bath or kitchen remodels. Some between $30 and $40 thousand dollars. One recipient used $20,000 to pay off a Cadillac,” Byrd said.
She then pointed to one DHS official who enriched her own husband’s after school care business with $2 million and even took preventative action to ensure the amount could not be corrected.
“Applicant one is married to the former Director of Childcare Services at DHS,” said Byrd. “She is one of the four individuals who helped structure all of the childcare initiatives, and she would’ve had access to and final authority over her husband’s application.”
Byrd criticized DHS’ definitions of what a daycare is and said its five-stay daycare rating system had zero accountability to it, even now.
Some centers are legitimately good, and others just look good on paper which leads to some getting money to take care of children they either never had or didn’t qualify for in the first place.
This is along the same lines of misspent federal education funds given to the state during the pandemic that was spent on video games, Christmas trees and barbecue grills instead of educating kids while they were stuck at home.
Auditor Byrd said it will be up to the Attorney General, Gentner Drummond, office to file criminal charges or not over the findings. She has the authority to investigate, but it’s the AG’s authority to prosecute.
Read the full audit below:
