NCJ Number
130589
Date Published
1991
Length
81 pages
Annotation
This analysis of the process used by the New York State Division of Substance Abuse Services (DSAS) to award contracts to certain New York City drug treatment programs concluded that it lacks adequate rules and procedures necessary to ensure the objective evaluation of both proposed and established treatment programs.
Abstract
The analysis also showed that the existing rules are often rendered meaningless by agency officials, including the director, who tolerate and sometimes encourage disregard for rules and lines of authority whenever expedient. The result is a process that is vulnerable to subjective decisionmaking, manipulation for personal objectives, and the vicissitudes of personal rivalries. These weaknesses have caused the agency to waste its resources, created skepticism that agency funds are distributed in a neutral manner, and damaged agency morale. Each of the four programs investigated by the Commission on Government Integrity demonstrated these weaknesses. Therefore, the agency's contracting procedures need major changes including a written, competitive funding process; objective procedures for evaluating problem programs; better recordkeeping; interagency sharing of information about social service contractors; and other changes. Footnotes