Inspector general must widen investigation of ODJFS

With Gov. Bob Taft announcing that he accepted responsibility for what went wrong in the state's mammoth department of job and family services, former director Jacqueline Romer-Sensky may be off the hook for at least some of what's been going wrong with her agency for at least the last year. But neither Romer-Sensky's resignation last Friday nor the appointment of former Ohio House Speaker Joanne Davidson as ODJFS interim director should diminish in the slightest the investigation of the department by Ohio's inspector general, Hubbard native Thomas P. Charles.
Restorer of faith: Created by the legislature, the inspector general's office has the authority to investigate fraud, waste, abuse and corruption within the executive branch of state government. Not only does the IG's office review and evaluate complaints to determine if a state officer, agency or employee has committed a wrongful act or omission, but significantly, the inspector general must also shed light on the corruption that would cause citizens to lose faith in their state government.
And who could possible put faith in ODJFS with millions of dollars in child support withheld from needy families, plans to close the employment offices that have helped countless out-of-work Ohioans and reports of multimillion dollar unbid contracts?
Inasmuch as the governor engineered the merger between what was the Ohio Department of Human Services and the former Ohio Bureau of Employment Services to become ODJFS and boasted in his State of the State Address that the new department was accomplishing its goals, Taft's office could have a good reason to obfuscate what is actually happening in a department which has huge authority over taxpayer dollars.
Now that all branches of the state's government are in the hands of one party, it is critical that an independent inspector be able to get to the bottom of this mess.
Major challenge: Unfortunately, Charles' department is a small one, with a full-time staff of only seven people. But this isn't the first time his investigators have looked at Ohio's human services operation. Perhaps their familiarity with the organization will help them get to the bottom of this expanding scandal.
Taft has appointed James Conrad, the administrator of the Ohio Bureau of Worker's Compensation, to head a review team to assess ODJFS. Given Conrad's success at OBWC, and the millions he has saved Ohio employers without diminishing support for workers, he should be able to put the agency, a part of which he once headed, on track.
But the department's future cannot be clear until its the problems in its past have been clarified -- whether the root of those problems is in the management of ODJFS or in the governor's office. We expect Taft's staff -- which has refused to discuss the most recent ODJFS flap -- will give their full cooperation to the inspector general.