The Pima County Attorney’s Office is looking into “procurement concerns,” self-reported to county officials by Catholic Community Services leaders, which appear to have prompted recent staffing changes at the Catholic nonprofit.
In May, County Administrator Jan Lesher sent a memo to the Pima County Board of Supervisors advising them that two Catholic Community Services employees were penalized for having conflicts of interest with an unnamed vendor that overcharged for its services.
“CCS has taken disciplinary action against the employees involved in hiring the vendor and alerted the County about the lack of required procurement procedures and contracting,” Lesher said in the May 17 memo, first reported by the Tucson Agenda. “I have met with CCS leadership and believe it is taking the appropriate corrective actions and I am appreciative of their immediate notification.”
The vendor provided laundry services at the nonprofit’s migrant-aid program, Casa Alitas, Catholic Community Services CEO Elena Dwyre said.
“We did believe it was important for our partners to understand that as soon as we found this conflict, it was immediately disclosed and we took immediate action to address it,” Dwyre told the Arizona Daily Star. “I think this speaks to our strong internal controls that we were able to identify the situation and we immediately rectified it.”
Lesher’s memo cited a message from Dwyre, advising the county of the vendor problem.
“Catholic Community Services recently discovered, in an internal review of accounts, that we had been overcharged for services by a contractor for one of our programs,” Dwyre wrote. “Upon further investigation we learned that two employees with that program had violated our conflict of interest and purchasing policies. Those employee relationships were quickly terminated, the contractor relationship was likewise discontinued, and program partners were promptly notified of the issue. We have begun the steps needed to rectify the billing issues. Additional steps have been taken to improve training and tightening of purchasing oversight, to ensure this situation will not repeat itself.”
The vendor was also working without a contract, in violation of county and federal procurement rules for the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Shelter and Services Program grant, Lesher wrote.
“As matters such as this must be reported to our federal funder, and out of an abundance of caution and for full transparency, I am alerting you to this incident and assure you we are taking the matter seriously,” Lesher wrote to supervisors.
In May, former Casa Alitas director Diego Piña Lopez resigned from his position, which was taken over by George Rushing, executive director for children and family services for CCS. Piña Lopez declined to comment on the reasons for his departure.
Former Catholic Community Services operations director Teresa Cavendish is also no longer at the agency. Cavendish did not respond to a request for comment from the Star.
Dwyre said she could not name the employees involved in the conflict of interest, due to a termination agreement.
Pima County spokesman Mark Evans said it’s up to Catholic Community Services to decide whether to provide the names of the employees involved to the media.
“This was a personnel matter at a nonprofit company we contracted with. We defer to them when discussing their employees,” he said.
Lesher told supervisors she’s asked the Pima County grants-management department to review all of CCS’s vendor contracts to ensure compliance with federal requirements.
She also asked the County Attorney’s Civil Division to review the matter “for implications to the overall CCS contract and any possible repercussions with the federal government.”
The Star has filed a public records request seeking more details on the procurement irregularities and any available results of the County Attorney Office’s review.
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