The governing body of the Prescription Opioid Settlement Distribution Commission (POSDC) is working to revamp its internal controls and grant distribution guidelines following fraud and accounting concerns.
After opioid settlement grant recipient Code Purple was flagged for potential misuse of funds in June, POSDC's Governance Committee has been formulating recommendations to try and bolster the commission's internal workings to avoid future incidents.
While an outside contractor is currently evaluating the commission’s procedures, and the state auditor’s office is auditing 12 additional grant recipients, the commission’s governance committee has been doing internal work.
The commission has currently approved two cycles of grant funding, as well as a smaller round of bridge funding, but the third cycle of $13 million is on hold until the commission has updated its processes and guidelines.
During Wednesday's meeting, Governance Committee Chair Dave Humes says his focus is getting more money out to nonprofits who are helping combat the opioid crisis as quickly as possible, but he’s concerned that process will remain stagnant until the end of the year.
“We've caught fraud, we want to avoid it, but we don't want to harm the 98% who have not committed fraud," Humes said.
Vice Chair Hunter Hastings expressed similar concerns, recommending the commission find a way to get some money back into the community during the internal review process.
“I would like to make a motion for the Governance [Committee] to make the recommendation that instead of putting the entire Phase 1 C funding on hold, that we release micro grants that are specific for the projects, while we're reviewing the current guidelines," Hastings said.
Deputy Attorney General Jason Staib said Hasting's recommendation is something that should be tackled at a future meeting.
Several other recommendations were made, including Humes' suggestion that the entire POSDC and its committees should undergo Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) compliance training.
The recommendation comes after it was alerted that several committees were meeting virtually without a physical anchor location, which violates Delaware Code's FOIA requirements to conduct business.
That training is expected to take place at the next full POSDC meeting in October.
Humes and Staib discussed working with members of the General Assembly to draft legislation that would allow the committees to meet entirely virtual in the future.
Additionally, POSDC Executive Director Susan Holloway flagged some accounting concerns, noting grant recipient Love and Hope Rescue Mission was approved to receive $70,000 by POSDC, but ended up receiving $100,000 instead.
Holloway said the mistake was solely a clerical error, and the entity repaid the extra $30,000 in full on August 16.
She explains the error would have been caught by the end-of-cycle review process, but it was brought to POSDC attention earlier by the Attorney General's Office. Holloway says the commission now plans to try a quarterly review process, and if it ends up being too strenuous, they may take a biannual approach.
POSDC also approved $450,000 for Our Youth, but they have yet to receive the funding due to their application being under administrative review by the Behavioral Health Consortium.
Potential new grant guidelines were also discussed, including adding location visits and licensure requirements before entities could be awarded funding.
POSDC is also looking into creating a stand-alone website, although it does have a new funding tracker, as well as a governance manual.
The next full commission meeting is October 28, 2024.
