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State agency closes MYCAP investigation
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MYCAP Interim Director John Wilson
YOUNGSTOWN
The Mahoning-Youngstown Community Action Partnership is out of the woods with the Ohio Department of Development and expects to have a new, permanent executive director by early March.
The state agency has completed its financial review of the agency, which resulted in the firing of its former director, Richard Roller III, and said MYCAP’s responses to issues raised by the state agency are acceptable.
In a letter dated Jan. 24 to MYCAP, the department’s audit chief, Jeff R. Bankey, said with the receipt of $1,978.26 in disallowed costs, “all issues have been addressed. We have, therefore, closed this financial review.”
Originally, the agency identified $78,256 in questioned costs.
“We’re very happy about that. And we’re appreciative of the ODOD’s assistance in getting the agency to this point,” said John A. Wilson, MYCAP interim executive director.
MYCAP administers 11 programs in Mahoning County to help poor and disadvantaged people. Its budget in 2008 was about $15.6 million, virtually all of which came from state and federal grants.
In November 2010, MYCAP’s board approved a three-month, $230,000 contract with Progress Resources Inc., of which Wilson is president. His firm is a Pennsylvania nonprofit training and technical- assistance organization that provides consulting services to community-action agencies nationwide.
The MYCAP board recently extended the original contract, which expired Jan. 31, and will pay Progress Resources an additional $110,000 through March, Wilson said.
Wilson is part of a team of three full-time and two part-time people that has been restructuring MYCAP’s finances, policies and procedures and directing the search for a new executive director for the agency.
Progress Resources’ contract was extended through April, but Wilson said the work should be done by the end of March, and that was the time for which funding was proposed.
A national search for a new chief executive produced 44 applications, which will be reduced to about 10 via electronic interviews planned for next Monday. About five finalists will be interviewed in person, Wilson said, and a new director should be in place by early March.
Roller was placed on unpaid administrative leave in April 2010 and fired in May in the wake of the development department’s investigation into whether the organization misappropriated funds and resources while he was the agency’s leader.
According to MYCAP’s 2008 IRS filing, Roller that year was paid wages of $102,077 and other compensation of $26,834, for a total of $128,911.
The development department’s audit produced questioned costs of $78,256.26 and was critical of a number of policies and procedures.
In a Dec. 22, 2010, letter, the state agency, however, said it had accepted MYCAP’s explanation of most of the actions that caused the investigation but that MYCAP must pay back $1,978.26 in disallowed costs.
Among its criticisms, the agency said internal control procedures were not followed, and documentation on how subcontractors were selected to perform various services in the Home Weatherization Assistance Program was missing.
In its response, MYCAP acknowledged that controls over inventory needed improvement and that hiring of contractors was retroactively approved.
Other items that caught the attention of state auditors were the appearance that Roller was using a company vehicle while receiving a $939-a-month adjustment to his salary in lieu of a car allowance.
Current MYCAP management, however, reviewed board minutes and concluded that it was not the board’s intention for Roller’s salary to include a car allowance. The minutes say the car allowance was denied and that the board increased Roller’s annual base compensation by $939 a month.
In its response, MYCAP said “current management feels that the total $11,750 payment was allowable” but that a policy that prohibits all personal use of agency vehicles has been instituted.
For the most part, MYCAP was able to document the questioned costs and satisfy the state that they were allowable, Wilson said.
Also, MYCAP has revised and tightened polices and procedures to ensure correct actions and make documentation more timely in the future. “Our goal is to ensure that proper systems and internal controls are in place and MYCAP is on sound fiscal footing,” Wilson said.