Baltimore Housing Commissioner Paul T. Graziano, who is facing an outcry over poor conditions in public housing and a lawsuit accusing maintenance men of sexual abuse, is also dealing with a critical audit over his agency's handling of grants meant to help poor families pay their energy bills.
According to a city audit, his agency approved $6.2 million in questionable payments, including grants to three dozen households that aren't even in the city.
City Auditor Robert L. McCarty, who reports to Comptroller Joan Pratt, found "widespread discrepancies" in the handling of energy assistance grants by the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development. Auditors say the city could supply no documentation for one in five of the cases sampled in the audit, and files that were available often had missing or incorrect information. In nearly three dozen cases, the housing agency signed off on paying the same energy bill twice, auditors said.
Graziano told the Board of Estimates this week he is addressing the auditors' concerns. He blamed the missing files on water damage in a room where the records were stored.
"The files that were missing, there was a flooding incident at that site," Graziano said. "Records were destroyed."
Graziano also told the spending panel that the state has no rules against the city awarding grants to county residents.
"There were questions about duplicate payments for residents outside the city of Baltimore," Graziano said. "There is not a residency requirement. Payments are made by the state of Maryland, so crossing the city-county line is not a problem."
But McCarty said Maryland's manual for the program "states the applicant is ineligible for benefits if the applicant lives in another county." He recommended the program limit its services to city residents.
Graziano also objected to McCarty's finding that 33 applicants received "duplicate payments." Graziano said 31 of the 33 cases have been resolved — a conclusion with which McCarty agreed.
McCarty asked Graziano to report back to the board once funds from the other two cases have been recouped or settled.
The federal energy assistance funds are funneled through the state, which pays Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. or a heating oil supplier on behalf of households, after municipal officials have reviewed residents' applications for help with utility bills. Payments range from nearly $100 to $1,710.
The program helped nearly 118,000 households statewide in the last fiscal year. City officials say they process more than 40,000 applications a year.
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—Luke Broadwater
