Child Care Directions had funding pulled from its satellite office for failure to adhere to an action plan, according to officials with Partnership for Children in Robeson County.

The plan was meant to correct financial deficiencies and possible misappropriation of Smart Start funds, said Jennifer Lowery, Partnership's executive director. Included in the plan was a request for the Laurinburg-based child services agency to repay more than $12,000.

Partnership officials began their inquiry after the departure of Executive Director Sandy Carter and Board President Troy Young last October.

"When we heard about the termination of the board chair and the executive director, we attempted to contact interim Board President Gladys Holmes," she said.

Holmes did not immediately return calls from the Partnership office, and Lowery became concerned. The funding contract in place between the agencies allows the Robeson County Partnership to perform a monitoring visit after any shift in leadership in Child Care Directions.

On Oct. 22 and 23, representatives from Robeson County Partnership for Children visited Child Care Directions and left with major concerns on not only the stability of the organization, but also with the belief that Child Care Directions misappropriated Smart Start funds, Lowery said.

She said Child Care Directions was generating revenue from training sessions paid for by Smart Start funds, something that requires approval that was never given.

There were also errors in the calculation of employee time sheets for the purpose of reimbursement, she said.

The plan said that several time sheets indicated employees of Child Care Directions spent more than 100 percent of their time working on Smart Start-funded programming.

"Monitoring visits indicates that staff, in some instances, were not comfortable providing the targeted service delivery due to the current financial restraints and organizational uncertainty," the Partnership reported.

The agency requested that the Child Care Directions board respond in writing to the full plan, set up a new bank account, outsource payroll and draft a repayment plan for $12,241.81 in Smart Start money the Partnership argued was improperly spent.

Child Care Directions had until Dec. 31, 2009 to respond.

"Although (Child Care Directions) has worked with (RCPC), a written response was never received as requested," according to the document. " ... Although an executive director wasn't in place, the board of directors could have provided a response, asked for extensions, etc., while they worked to achieve internal goals."

Lowery said concerns over the failure to meet deadlines in reference to becoming compliant on the use and monitoring of Smart Start funds was the ultimate reason for the decision to pull funds. Child Care Directions lost $300,000 in Partnership funds and had to close the Lumberton office last week.

"We terminated the contract with them because they were not responding to any of our deadlines," Lowery said.

After the monitoring session, Lowery said she had a meeting with several board members where they promised her they would take the appropriate steps to correct the issues.

"They dropped the ball and didn't take it seriously," she said.

Based on her interactions with the board members, Lowery said there may be a serious lack of leadership in Child Care Directions.

Lowery said ultimately the buck stops with her agency when it comes to the distribution of Smart Start funds that the Laurinburg agency was receiving.

"I am responsible and my board is responsible for every dime that leaves the office."

Bonnie Schenck, board secretary for Child Care Directions, declined to comment on the concerns raised by Lowery.

Bobbie Jo Robertson, interim executive director of Child Care Directions, said in a statement that the closing of the Robeson office and the loss of funding would not impact on the agency's ability to deliver services.

"It is unfortunate that our Robeson County office closed; however, the Scotland County office is prepared to continue to provide quality referral services to Robeson and Scotland County parents and technical assistance and professional development to Robeson and Scotland County child care providers," she said.

Scotland funding

Scotland County Partnership for Children and Families will continue to fund Child Care Directions, Executive Director Anita Riojas-Myers said Monday, a week after the Robeson County equivalent announced they were pulling their funding from the Lumberton office.

Partnership for Children has budgeted $128,225 in Smart Start funds for two programs at Child Care Directions – child care quality coordination and child care quality maintenance, according to Riojas-Myers.

"At this time, we have chosen to continue funding those programs," she said.

Her agency is working with Child Care Directions to ensure "quality and fiscally sound programs," according to Riojas-Myers.

"We have done our monitoring and we are working with them."

United Way has not looked at the issue of funding for Child Care Directions since the departure of its board president and executive director in October, according to Jay Todd, president of the Scotland County United Way, as the local funding agency reviews its partners on an annual basis.

Contribution amounts are set in April, where the United Way looks at each partner agency and evaluates it's participation.

The United Way stands by that figure once it is set, Todd said. The only exception to this is if some substantiated issue occurs with a partner agency, such as the organization closes or there are formal charges of embezzlement.

The local nonprofit funding group gives Child Care Directions a marginal sum, according to Todd, as the contribution was just $1,055 in 2009 out of a $200,000 budget.

No money will be distributed for 2010 until the budget process occurs.