Finding 523678 (2022-003)

Fraud was identified by board members of the Dover Interfaith Mission for Housing (DIMH) in November 2023 with respect to the Emergency Housing and Health programs, and an internal investigation ensued. Prior to this finding, a committee of the board reviewed the Executive Director’s (ED) financial reporting and were confident in her documentation, which was also approved by the City of Dover manager of the Emergency Housing and Health programs. Briefly, the ED had invented invoices from motels and landlords along with applications from individuals and families who did not exist. In both programs, DIMH provided funds to cover motel stays and landlord payments and was reimbursed by the City of Dover. In practice, the ED simply took DIMH funds, deposited them into a personal account, and provided invented documents to the City that resulted in reimbursement to DIMH. This clever ruse had eluded both board and city personnel monitoring the expenditures and reimbursements. Once there was suspicion of fraud, board members not involved in prior program oversight actively reviewed files with the City’s program manager to ascertain its extent. A meeting was held between the board chair and the city’s program manager to review all files in order to determine the approximate extent of the fraud, which was clearly limited to these two grant programs. In early January 2023, DIMH board members arranged to meet with the Dover Police Department to provide an overview of the fraud. This led to police contact with local FBI and HUD inspector general offices along with the US attorney for Delaware, with the same board members providing all files and in-person descriptions of the scam. These agencies continued to work on uncovering the details of the case and are expected to meet with the former ED on February 28, 2025. In early 2024, the DIMH board engaged a new external accounting firm and created a new control environment with significant internal controls and separation of duties developed in collaboration with the contracted CPA firm.