Group charged for ‘free’ meals

A nonprofit group in Southeast that received more than $1.9 million from the city to provide free services to elderly low-income residents illegally charged recipients for meals, day care and transportation, D.C. investigators say.

Senior Citizens Counseling & Delivery Service has charged senior citizens $1 for each day they received a free meal, according to a D.C. Office of the Inspector General report.

The D.C. Office of Aging has paid more than $1.9 million in grants to Senior Citizens Counseling since 2000 to provide free meals and other services to elderly low-income Ward 8 residents.

City investigators said several senior citizens served by the group were denied free meals because they could not make payments.

A spokeswoman for E. Veronica Pace, director of the Office of Aging, said officials have not commented on the report because they still were reviewing it.

The inspector general’s report was prompted by a Nov. 1, 2002, request from the Office of Aging.

Officials at Senior Citizens Counseling declined to comment. The group, at 2451 Good Hope Road SE, has provided social services for about 8,000 clients for about 30 years. Charles C. Stephenson Jr. is chairman of its board of directors, and Concha Johnson is executive director, according to its Web site (www.sccds.net).

The inspector general’s report recommends that city officials recover $298,066 from the organization. The report also found that the group has been selling free meals to ineligible recipients, including Maryland residents.

“This practice of selling meals was not consistent with the intent … to provide free meals to eligible participants,” the report states.

The organization also overstated the number of meals it served in regular reports submitted to the Office of Aging, investigators said.

In August 2002, the group’s officials said they provided 1,761 meals at one nutrition site, but sign-in sheets indicated that 561 residents were served, according to the inspector general’s report.

The report also faulted the agency for charging Ward 8 residents up to $250 per month for geriatric day-care services, even though recipients were not required to pay any money, investigators said.

The organization also violated grant funding guidelines by sponsoring activities outside the District, including a November 2002 bus trip to see a play in New York City. Investigators said the organization took 47 persons to see the play “Harlem Song,” but only eight were low-income senior citizens eligible for services.

However, Senior Citizens Counseling reported to the Office of Aging that all 47 persons were eligible and charged the city more than $1,000.

The Office of the Inspector General faulted the Office of Aging for failing to provide proper oversight of the contractor, saying city officials did not ensure that the organization fixed problems outlined in a previous audit.

Audits of the organization found that it had inaccurate accounting records.