Auditors Say Asian Refugee Agency Mismanaged Funds : Investigation: Community Resources Opportunity Project is put on probation by disabilities center that is its main source of money. Programs are called ‘disorganized, non-functional.’

An Asian refugee agency has been put on probation because an audit by its major funder has found that it mismanaged its funds and billed taxpayers for services it never provided.

The auditors also described programs managed by the as “disorganized and non-functional,” noting that its employees spent large amounts of time aimlessly driving mentally disabled patients around the county so that it could bill taxpayers for transportation costs.

CROP, the largest nonprofit social services agency for Asian refugees in Orange County, received $1.2 million in government grants last year to provide services mainly to Asian refugees, many of whom were political prisoners in “re-education camps” in their native countries. The agency has a $1.3-million annual budget and employs about 40 people.

A spokesman for the refugee agency Tuesday acknowledged the problems and said a major management shake-up had gotten the organization “back on track.”

The refugee agency was founded in 1982 as a joint venture by former political prisoners from Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. It has received widespread acclaim across the state for its counseling, job training and English language classes.

The six-week audit, begun in January and completed in March, was prompted when the nonprofit Development Disabilities Center of Orange County received complaints that the refugee agency used sloppy bookkeeping and accounting methods, among other allegations.

Last year, the disabilities center paid CROP $930,000 in taxpayers’ money to provide services to 68 disabled Asian and Latino county residents. The disabilities center receives state funds to provide services to county residents who have epilepsy, cerebral palsy, mental retardation and other developmental disabilities. It contracts with various agencies to perform these services.

Elaine Bamberg, chief executive officer of the Developmental Disabilities Center, said she and other center officials are “saddened” by the audit’s findings. Under terms of the probation, CROP must improve its performance or lose funding.

Bamber said Tuesday that CROP has complied with most of her agency’s demands, but another audit will be done to ensure that the clients are receiving proper treatment.

Dennis Catron, a Midway City real estate broker appointed to act as executive director two months ago, attributed CROP’s troubles to an internal management dispute that resulted in the resignation of four board members in February.

“It’s very unfortunate that these things happened, but management was not doing its job,” Catron said. “We’ve made the necessary changes and our organization is now back on track, running smoothly.”

Under its contract with CROP, the disabilities center pays CROP to work with mentally disabled people who want to avoid being institutionalized. To help these clients remain in their communities, CROP social workers visit clients in their houses and teach them how to perform simple tasks, such as making purchases at stores. To be effective, such activity must be done in the disabled client’s neighborhood, counselors said.

However, the center’s six-week-long audit revealed that on some occasions CROP employees drove mentally disabled people from their homes in Santa Ana to make purchases in Placentia and Yorba Linda.

“There was . . . no apparent reason for site selection, in many cases, except to consume time,” Bamberg states in her audit.

In addition, CROP billed the disabilities center for $22,000 in transportation costs even though CROP records show that its employees never transported anyone on the days cited in billings, according to the audit. Bamberg said the agency is seeking reimbursement from CROP.

The audit also noted that even though disabilities center officials warned CROP that auditors would make unannounced visits to counseling sites, counselors were present less than 30% of the time.

“It appears that supervision of (counseling) activity is nearly nonexistent,” the audit stated. (All) . . . CROP appears to be providing is community presence . . . (CROP counselors) spend inordinate amounts of time driving consumers around the county to fill program hours, apparently lacking either training or accountability for providing meaningful services to consumers.”

In March, Bamberg served notice that her agency planned to terminate its contract on April 16, 1993, unless CROP officials implemented several measures, including retraining its staff and overhauling its accounting procedures.

Bamber said Tuesday that CROP has complied with most of her agency’s demands. But she said disabilities center officials plan to conduct a second audit to ensure that their clients are receiving proper treatment.