The task of ensuring that the state's foster children are safe and secure is being undermined by an incomplete and inconsistent record-keeping system within the Department of Human Services, according to a new report by the state auditor.

The audit, which reviewed 161 cases, could not verify the dates that many of the children were placed in or removed from foster homes.

In some cases, the audit found inaccurate names, birth dates and Social Security numbers for foster children. And in 28 percent of the cases reviewed, the audit could not verify a child's identity because either a Social Security card or birth certificate was missing.

State Auditor Marion Higa said the problems put children "at risk."

"Anytime you lose track of the children you are responsible for in any way, they are at risk," Higa said. "They may not be where you think they are. They may not be getting the services you thought they were getting and you are paying for."

Human services officials said the audit was fair and highlighted issues they were aware of.

"The auditor's office didn't really point out any surprises to us," said Lee Dean, assistant program administrator for the Child Welfare Services Branch. "We knew there were some areas we needed to work on."

DATABASE UNRELIABLE

The report is a follow-up to a critical 1994 audit of the Foster Board Payment Program. The payment program provides $529 a month for a foster child's room and board, as well as other payments for services the child needs while in foster placement.

The state cares for about 2,500 foster children on any given day.

The audit focused on the past two years, from July 2003 to the present, but also used information from earlier years when necessary.

Although the new audit praised improvements made since 1994 — especially the agency's ability to more than double federal financial assistance to $26 million a year — it said the agency's database often was unreliable because information was not updated in a timely fashion.

The agency's Child Welfare Services Branch blamed some of that on lack of adequate staffing, staff turnover, a higher priority placed on child safety and other issues, the audit said.

"However, an unreliable database means that decision-makers may lack key information at crucial times, placing children, families and the state at risk," the audit said.

In addition, the inability to keep track of foster children led to $816,053 in overpaid assistance through March to ineligible foster parents, the audit said. So far, claims have been filed with foster parents to recover $213,617.

ACCOUNTING AND KIDS

One extreme example involved payments being made to the foster parents of a child who had been adopted more than a year earlier.

Dean said the Child Welfare Services Branch has not recovered any of the money.

He said the Department of Human Services has a fiscal management office but its accounting system does not report back to his branch what money is recovered.

Accounting is not the primary job of social workers, though, Dean said.

"We told our staff you are social workers and your job is to work with the kids and the clients," he said. "Try to get the money back, but if you can't, refer it to our automatic system, which is under our fiscal management office."

Dean said the human services database is a complicated system in which a foster child can generate several separate cases that are not linked to each other.

He said his staff is "making a great deal of effort" to improve documenting changes in a child's status.

But Dean disagrees with the auditor's assessment that the discrepancies put children at risk.

"When I look at risk, I look at harm and danger to children," he said. "And if we happen to miss a piece of paper or if the auditor couldn't find a piece of paper, I don't think that puts a child at risk. It may mean we have an overpayment. To me, although we have to be fiscally responsible, that is far less important than putting a child at risk."

The hundreds of thousands of dollars in overpaid assistance, which dates back to about 1996, is not a lot of money when compared to the agency's overall budget through the same period, he said.

"It is something we need to work on and it is something we will be working on," he said. "But that is a small amount."