VT Dept of Health Terrorism Funds Audit, Part II

TIMES ARGUS - MONTPELIER — The state's hospital association mishandled and misspent money meant to prepare for possible biological terrorism in the state — and the Vermont Department of Health let the fiscal missteps happen — according to an audit expected to be released today.

The review by State Auditor Thomas Salmon found several troubling problems in the handling and use of as much as $900,000 in federal biological terrorism preparation grants that went through the health department and were spent by the Vermont Association of Hospitals and Health Systems.

In one case, more than $300 was spent on a meal for four at Aquitaine, a French bistro in Boston's South End, including $76 on drinks. State employees in a similar circumstance would be limited to spending $18.15 per meal, but similar limits did not seem to be followed in the use of the bioterrorism money.

Audit finds bio-terror funds were misspent
August 24, 2007 by Louis Porter, in the Barre/Montpelier Times Argus