A new report from the Office of the State Auditor alleges failure by two Mississippi agencies to ensure proper oversight of public money given to nonprofits.
State Auditor Shad White said Monday that the Mississippi State Department of Health and the Mississippi Department of Human Services spent large sums of taxpayer funds on bloated employee salaries, gift cards, and gym memberships, among other purchases he deemed questionable.
According to the report, the state health department, in a campaign to decrease diet-related diseases among “disadvantaged Mississippians,” gave more than $250,000 to a nonprofit called My Brother’s Keeper. Analysts at the state auditor’s office alleged the nonprofit underspent on providing services and overspent on paying salaries to its own employees.
In total, 55% of the subgrant paid for the nonprofit’s employee salaries and administration. Nearly $7,000 was spent on “incentive” gift cards reimbursed to the organization, despite the health department not having any documentation showing whether these gift cards were distributed appropriately.
The report further outlined that $45,000 was spent on meal subscriptions, upscale grocery store gift cards, and gym memberships reimbursed to My Brother’s Keeper, though the state health department did not have documentation showing whether or not the expenditures were necessary.
The report comes four months after the auditor’s team uncovered that nonprofits had misspent HIV/AIDS grant money from the health department, which prompted State Health Officer Dan Edney to admit that the agency had failed to properly monitor how public funds were being utilized by partner organizations.
White’s office also reported that 100 Black Men of Jackson and the Juanity Sims Doty Foundation also spent grant money inappropriately. 100 Black Men of Jackson was given $40,000 to address health disparities among African American youth. The nonprofit spent $2,400 on gift cards, headphones, and speakers, and nearly $2,000 on t-shirts. These expenditures were unbudgeted with little documentation to show how they benefited any cause, per the report.
The Juanita Sims Doty Foundation received more than $2.4 million from the Mississippi Department of Human Services that flowed from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program. IRS records show that the nonprofit’s executive director was paid $106,050 in 2022 and $118,447 in 2023.
“The state must stop handing taxpayer dollars to nonprofits with vague goals and then failing to monitor what these nonprofits do with it,” White said. “The government is wasting so much money.”
White’s office has submitted the findings from its audit to Attorney General Lynn Fitch’s office.
