Oklahoma State Auditor and Inspector Cindy Byrd, who uncovered what she described as “years of malfeasance” at the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office in 2024, says two state agencies have mismanaged millions of dollars in grant monies.

Yesterday, Byrd released the Federal Single Audit of expenditures made during FY 2023, a federally-mandated exam of how the State of Oklahoma spent federal grant money, and if those expenditures complied with federal regulations. According to Byrd, the audit found a record number of questioned costs totaling $93.4 million, the bulk of which was at the Office of Management and Enterprise Services (OMES) and the Department of Human Services (DHS). Questioned costs are any expenditures that do not comply with the law, cannot be documented, and/or appear unreasonable or unethical.

Byrd says OMES mismanaged more than $21.8 million in grant money earmarked to provide rental assistance to Oklahomans during the Covid-19 pandemic. As a result, an estimated 7,659 Oklahomans could have received rental assistance but were denied. She also said that DHS failed to put proper guardrails on expenditures for more than $63.6 million in federal grant money. Those funds were intended for expanding childcare access and welfare benefits.

“Every taxpayer in Oklahoma needs to understand what this means. If this mismanagement continues, our federal taxes will go up, our state taxes will go up, and government services will plummet,” Byrd said in a news release. “The federal government can, and most likely will, demand millions of dollars back from the State of Oklahoma. It is past time for Oklahoma to get its financial house in order.”

Byrd said the combined questioned costs from the last three Federal Single Audits totals more than $186 million.

“For the last three years, I have been sounding the alarm that Oklahoma state government is mired in a culture of financial mismanagement,” Byrd stated. “Over the last three years, the problems have gotten progressively worse. The amount of money Oklahomans could be forced to repay to the federal government is concerning.”

The full FY 2023 Federal Single Audit is posted on the Oklahoma State Auditor & Inspector’s official website: www.sai.ok.gov.