Special Education Provider Audited for Excessive Billing

Directors argue their for-profit nature makes them a target for harsh auditing.

by Scott Waldman -

A special education provider inappropriately billed taxpayers more than $180,000 and used public money to pay for a home entertainment center, a Disney World vacation and a dishwasher, according to a new state comptroller?s audit.

State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said the directors of Achievements PLLC used the money to enrich themselves, their family members and staff. The audit found that Executive Director Tami Callister and her husband, Jim Callister, the group?s business director, spent $68,072 on goods and services for their family. That includes a $12,616 home entertainment center, a cruise, tickets to Dave Matthews Band and Phish concerts, fencing and annual membership fees to a family recreation center.

?Money that should be spent solely on students is instead being wasted, misspent or even pocketed by certain special education contractors to enrich themselves,? DiNapoli said. ?It?s clear the system for monitoring these dollars is broken and taxpayers are paying the price.?

The audit also found that, between 2005 and 2010, the Callisters racked up $66,225 in excessive charges to lease office space in a building that they owned. The audit discovered another $48,293 in other inappropriate costs. The directors also tried to conceal personal charges by distributing them to various accounts used to set the business?s reimbursement rates, according to DiNapoli.

The directors responded in an extensive rebuttal, essentially claiming that costs were appropriate or the result of accounting errors. They also claimed that they were unfairly targeted by DiNapoli?s office because theirs is a for-profit company and that not-for-profits would be treated more justly.

?It is disingenuous of the auditors to create wrongful impressions of Achievements, its professional members or the spouses of these company members through careless phraseology and factually inaccurate statements,? Achievements? directors said in their response. ?We would encourage the auditors to correct these false statements and to provide a more balanced presentation of Achievements? operations.?

DiNapoli?s office is auditing the state Education Department?s oversight and management of New York?s special education program, which spends $2 billion each year to provide special services and classroom instruction to 37,000 children with physical, developmental and emotional disabilities.

Read more at?Sharp audit, sharp reply.

[Via Times Union]

Source: http://specialedpost.com/2012/11/22/special-education-provider-audited-for-excessive-billing/

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