"We've spent a lot of time working through the glitches," said DHS Commissioner Ann Marie Ambrose, "and the [state] Department of Public Welfare has been very helpful. We're confident we're going to work this out."
Ambrose emphasized that the problems haven't delayed services to kids.
City Finance Director Rob Dubow acknowledged that getting that $40 million would be helpful as city officials struggle to decide which vendors it can pay now and which will have to wait.
But, Dubow said, the problem is manageable. "This is really a timing issue," he said. "There won't be any money lost."
The problem is just the kind of bureaucratic tangle that can occur when funding for something important like abused kids flows from federal officials to state government to the city to nonprofit providers, each of which has its own rules and record-keeping and institutional interests.
At issue is federal funding for services for troubled kids under Title IV-E of the Social Security Act. The city pays private and nonprofit groups to take care of kids, then sends the state Welfare Department a bill every three months to get reimbursed for Title IV-E eligible expenses.
The problem, state officials say, is that they have to account to the feds for how every penny is spent, and auditors haven't been happy with the documentation from Philadelphia DHS.
"We really didn't have a choice," State Welfare Department Budget Director BethAnn Smetak said of the changes imposed on Philadelphia and other counties. "This was done to comply with federal requirements and continue to draw down federal Title IV-E funding."
But some in the child-welfare community believe that state Deputy Welfare Secretary Richard Gold overreacted by imposing a new invoicing system that has created headaches for city and county administrators and for service providers.
