Southern

Alabam

Regional
Serving
Wiregrass Council
AGENCY
Ott Ac Seniors on Aging www .s

May 1, 2017

Mayor Lanny Lancaster and Town Council Members

Town of Columbia
Post Office Box 339
Columbia, Alabama 36319

Dear Mayor and Council Members:

Funding for meals and operations of the Columbia Senior Center is provided by the United States
Administration on Community Living and administered locally by SARCOA and the Alabama Department
of Senior Services. As such, the use of these funds is governed by very strict federal and state
regulations that require that the funds be used solely for the purposes for which they are appropriated.

The Town of Columbia is responsible for seeing that its program is operated in accordance with the
requirements found in the contract and program guidelines. This includes providing staff capable of
performing the services in a satisfactory and proper manner and overseeing those staff. SARCOA is
responsible for training, program assessment, and financial monitoring to assure such compliance.

On April 7, 2017, the SARCOA Senior Center Coordinator performed a program assessment of the
Columbia Senior Center program. There were numerous deficiencies identified. When the low
attendance that day was discussed with the center director, she explained that they were always low on
Fridays because city employees did not participate on those days. This conflicted with the number of
participants who were reported as attending on Fridays and thus required a further investigation.

We began by acquiring all sign-in sheets for the center for January 1 through April 13. When the
coordinator returned for the sign-in sheets, the mayor was present at the center eating a meal. The
mayor approached her and accused the "bitches," referring to the participants at the center, of calling in
to complain and prompting an investigation.

An extensive and detailed audit of the senior center's congregate and home-delivered meals program
has been completed back to October 2016. The findings are as follows:

A review of the sign in sheets showed for every day, a signature was in each of the 20 lines
-

representing the 20 center meals. At first glance, signatures appeared to have been made by
different individuals. However, the persons whose names appeared on the list did not match
the persons who were entered into the computer reporting system as receiving a meal. There
were instances of names signed without meals reported and meals reported without names
signed. We obtained additional sign - in sheets back to the first of October 2016, compared them
to the units reported, and found the problem to be long standing.
 A telephone survey of the senior center and homebound participants confirmed the suspected
forgeries. We learned that many persons were being reported as being present when they were
not and thus, their signatures were being forged. The survey revealed the following:
o One theme was common: no more than seven to ten participants were ever present at
the center;
o People were signed in every day, even though they said they attended only a few days
of each week or even when they had not attended at all in several months; and
o One participant who had been admitted to a nursing home one month prior to our
survey was signed in and recorded as receiving meals after the date of his admission.

We compiled the signatures of all alleged participants from all the sign-in sheets. During the
January-April period, it appears there over 900 forgeries on the sign-in sheets for the congregate
(center) meal program:
Every one of the 26 participants who routinely signed in, had his or her name forged at
least once on the sign-in sheets;
Another participant whose name appeared on sign-in sheets only two times during this
period, was reported to have received a meal every day for several months; and
o Out of the 35 people whose names appeared on the meal sign-in sheets at some time
during the period, only 22 were listed in the reporting system as having received a meal.

Several participants informed us that the mayor, who is the husband of the center director, eats
a meal at the center every day; however, the reporting system shows his name only in the
month of January 2017 and only for ten meals.

SARCOA staff conducted a follow up visit on April 26 to verify that homebound residents were
receiving meals. We determined that twelve homebound residents were actually receiving the
twelve meals designated for them. There were discrepancies in the home-delivered program:
No signatures were obtained at all; and
o The computer system entries were incorrect. One person was listed as receiving meals
when in fact they had not received meals for some time, and the name of one person
who was reported as receiving home delivered meals was found on the sign-in sheets
for congregate meals.

We firmly believe that names were forged on the sign-in sheets in an effort to cover up the fact that
meals were not being served to eligible participants. The investigation revealed that an average of 10
ineligible meals per day have occurred over 137 serving days between October 1, 2016 and April 28,
2017, at a cost of $3.2825 per meal. This results in a total amount of $4,497.03 due for ineligible meals.
This amount may increase if ineligible meals continue during May 2017.

Consequently, SARCOA hereby notifies the Town of Columbia that its contract with SARCOA is
terminated effective May 31, 2017, as is allowed by the terms of the contract. In addition, payment for
the ineligible meals is due from the Town of Columbia to SARCOA no later than May 10, 2017.

During May 2017, the number of meals will be reduced to the minimum of 25. This allows for twelve
meals for homebound residents, leaving thirteen meals for the senior center congregate program. Any

2
 SARCOA will monitor attendance during May and will also
meals not served are considered ineligible.
conduct financial monitoring to evaluate financial compliance.

Unfortunately, the senior citizens of your area are the people who are hurt most by the deficiencies in
the operation of the Columbia Senior Center. SARCOA will make arrangements for the few seniors who
neighboring senior centers. SARCOA will also provide
have been actually attending the center to attend
eekly packs of frozen meals to the homebound participants but we will
not be able to provide the daily

visit to these persons.

which
SARCOA is providing a copy of this letter to the Alabama Department of Senior Services (ADSS),
be
oversees SARCOA's program, for further investigation. ADSS will determine whether this matter will
forwarded to the federal agency or to the Office of the Attorney General.

SARCOA is also providing a copy of this letter to the Alabama Ethics Commission as required by law.

*.he Town of Columbia is interested in applying for SARCOA senior center operations funding in the
future, you may contact me for the requirements.

S ncerpiy,
I

Oana'G. Eidson
Executive Director

cc Alabama Department of Senior Services

Alabama Ethics Commission