Mar 25, 2005  |  By: LOU CHIBBARO JR.  | COMMENTS     

The D.C. HIV/AIDS Administration awarded AIDS-related contracts to at least two community-based organizations that operated out of empty offices and did not appear to be providing any of the services for which they were paid, according to an audit conducted by the D.C. Inspector General’s Office.

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 ...