Woman collects over $300,000 for 12 Years of Work. Never Showed Up.
This is just crazy. In Norfolk, Virginia, an agency exists called the Norfolk Community Services Board. Said agency is partially funded by Virginia’s Department of Behavioral Health and Development Services. This board is one of 40 or so across the state that exist to help adults and children with mental illness, emotional disturbances, and the like. Apparently, these boards are required by state law but each city really has no accountability beyond giving the boards funding. Norfolk’s board was given $4 million dollars for their budget this past year.
Maureen Womack to the rescue
Well, thanks to a newly hired board director named Maureen Womack, it was discovered that an employee who did not show up for 12 years earned between $300,000 and $480,000. Norfolk mayor Paul Fraim told CNN:
The Norfolk Community Services Board is a “quasi-federal, state and local agency that operates independently,” he said. “No one really judges their performance, if you will. It’s not a good model.”
But it’s not like there is no accountability. Each board is required to execute an annual audit and then send the state a copy of this audit. But Meghan McGuire, spokeswoman for Virginia’s Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services says:
“Recent audits of Norfolk showed low risk and no need for our department to conduct our own audit,” McGuire said. “We don’t have an employee-employer relationship with them, but if we do find out about a situation or something that needs to be investigated … we can investigate through our internal audit process.”
This shit is bananas. B-A-N-A-N-A-S. Incase you were wondering, the board director before Maureen Womack was George Pratt who says he knew nothing about the recent investigation and that he read about it in the paper.
