(The Center Square) — Virginia’s legislative watchdog agency presented a stark review of ongoing financial management and staffing issues at the Virginia Department of Health to legislators Thursday.
Republican and Democratic state legislators alike were surprised at the severity and extent of the department’s issues, calling the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission staff’s findings “very sobering,” “shocking” and “disturbing.”
Within the first few minutes of the report, Drew Dickinson, the commission’s chief legislative analyst, shared that “several major overlapping developments have created substantial operational challenges for VDH,” the department’s “numerous financial problems have affected other organizations and required state intervention” and that the department is “overly reliant on contractors,” preventing it from developing a “stable and knowledgeable workforce.”
Most of the department’s financial and otherwise issues stem from its inability to train and retain qualified staff.
“Since 2018, 13 individuals have held four key financial management leadership positions,” the report reads. In one year, its Office of Financial Management lost 43% of its staff to turnover.
Later, Dickinson said that the department had missed out on at least 490 qualified candidates who went on to find other work because of its clunky and protracted hiring process.
Del. Anne Ferrell Tata, R-Virginia Beach, clarified in a question to Dickinson that the problems had been “longstanding” and had occurred over numerous years.
“Yes, you’re exactly right. These problems have developed over multiple years and it’s going to take multiple years to address them,” Dickinson said.
The pandemic compounded the department’s problems because it led the state’s response to COVID-19 and received a massive influx of federal funding in the midst of its management and organizational issues, according to Dickinson.
JLARC staff made several legislative and executive recommendations to the commission, promoting multiple audits and greater accountability and oversight for the department going forward. It suggested that the General Assembly create explicit staffing and reporting requirements for the department in statute, including establishing a VDH chief operating officer position, several positions focused on recruitment and IT audits and requiring the VDH commissioner “to provide semi-annual written and in-person reports on the agency’s progress in implementing JLARC recommendations.”
