Audit uncovers financial mismanagement within New Jersey’s halfway house program

A recent accounts payable audit found New Jersey's state-funded halfway house program – which cost taxpayers more than $64 million last year – to be rife with duplicate payments, overpayments and inconsistent expenditures.

A total of 10 of the state's 25 halfway houses were found to have been overpaid by more than $587,000 over a period of six years as a result of a series of mathematical inaccuracies in the state's calculations. Also, seven providers were reimbursed for gaining accreditations that they had not actually obtained, the news source reports.

Additionally, a separate AP audit found that the state's Department of Corrections had allowed providers to include what appeared to be duplicate expenses in their per diem budgets.

"This is a $64 million program whose success or failure has important consequences for public safety, and yet as a state we have done a poor job of monitoring the program and have made no real attempt to find out what taxpayers are getting for their money," Matthew Boxer, State Comptroller, said in a statement.