Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities

Hudson Valley DDSO Administration of Preservation Funds

Hudson Valley DDSO oversees the care that is provided to persons with mental retardation and developmental disabilities in Orange, Rockland, Sullivan and Westchester Counties. This care is provided in group homes, family care homes and other program sites, many of which are operated by not-for-profit (voluntary) agencies. The voluntary agencies may receive Preservation Funds from Hudson Valley DDSO for maintenance and renovation projects at these sites. We examined Hudson Valley DDSO’s oversight of the funding process for these projects and found that certain improvements were needed. For example, for projects to be eligible for Preservation Funding, the contractors must be selected through an open competitive bidding process. Hudson Valley DDSO is supposed to take certain steps to ensure that such a process is used, but we found that the DDSO did not always take these steps. In addition, when we reviewed the procurement records at selected voluntary agencies for a sample of completed projects, we found little or no evidence the contractors were, in fact, selected through an open competitive process. We recommended that a number of improvements be made in the DDSO’s oversight of funding for Preservation Fund projects.

For a complete copy of Report 2008-S-7 click here.
For a copy of the 90-day response click here.