Audit Finds New York City Agency Overpaid for Housing for HIV/AIDS Patients, Including Dead Patients
New York City's Human Resources Administration, which finds temporary shelter for people living with HIV/AIDS, paid $2.2 million in "questionable" payments over two and a half years, including paying for hotel rooms for patients who had already died, according to an audit by city Comptroller William Thompson, Long Island Newsday reports. HRA paid $182,391 for rooms assigned to 26 people up to two years after they died, according to the audit. Auditors found that $1 million went to vendors for clients who had not signed registration logs, $456,292 was paid for overnight stays on or after clients' last day of occupancy, $417,463 went to rooms for people not listed in the agency's new database, $118,185 was double billed and $20,030 went to a vendor who submitted a bill for $2,030 (Yan, Long Island Newsday, 7/5). Thompson has ordered HRA to begin recovering some of the funds, according to the New York Post. The agency said it will implement a card-swiping system to keep better track of clients (Campanile, New York Post, 7/5).
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