Maine appears to have lost account of $19 million in federal Temporary Assistance to Needy Families program funds. There is, amazingly enough, no paper or electronic money trail.

If not found, the federal government may require Maine to return the funds, making this a $38 million accounting error.

There is no accusation of criminal intent here, just sloppy bookkeeping recognized years ago and allowed to continue.

We can fix this and other financial irregularities – like the squirreling away of $434,000 in a Department of Human Services desk drawer that occurred serveral months ago – by establishing an auditing arm of state government, charging it with responsibility to audit finances and evaluate all programs to ensure they perform as intended.

Such an independent arm, a state Office of Program Evaluation and Government Accountability, has been proposed and gained some support, but not the support of Gov. Baldacci’s administration.

Taxpayers have been told the state cannot afford the new office because money is tight, but we’ve already spent money to audit DHS and are prepared to contract with additional accountants to track down the missing funds. It’s a penny wise-pound foolish argument.

Rep. David Trahan and other supporters of OPEGA estimate that Maine could spend $1 million in the first year to establish the office, hire a director and three staffers. It may cost more in future years, but we would be spared bills like the $38 million now facing us to replace the missing DHS funds.

This audit agency is not a new concept.

Maine’s Joint Standing Committee on Audit and Program Review was sacrificed in 1990 to balance a tight budget. While it may have seemed prudent at the time, we lost oversight and allowed DHS books to disintegrate. It is easy to imagine other accounting errors in all pockets of government as Maine has operated without steady scrutiny.

Senate President Beverly Daggett argues that legislative committees already have this oversight authority. Trouble is, committees choose not to use it, and we can hardly blame them. Legislators barely have enough time to read the material presented between hearings and workshops. How could we expect them to balance state books amidst their other duties?

We understand the budget concerns, so why not fund OPEGA with agency funds, billing agencies a percent of their operating costs in ratio to their drain on the state budget and make them doubly accountable for their programs: accountable not just for careful management, but in proving program and financial efficiency.
Delay the honor
House Speaker Pat Colwell is an effective legislator and a productive Speaker of the House. He is a strong advocate of Maine’s technical colleges and has aggressively backed the creation of a community college system.

In tribute, the Maine Community College System has created a scholarship in Colwell’s name to recognize what it considers his “strong and continuing support.”

It’s quite an honor, but one better left unbestowed for now.

It is unseemly to name a scholarship for a man who is firmly in control of the purse strings for the college system.

The community college system concept, while widely supported, is not fully funded and won’t be until well after the June referendum. That means the system will remain dependent on Colwell’s continued support.

Tying Colwell to the community college system structure while decisions still remain on funding, decisions he has enormous power to direct, tilts productive debate.
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