Legislators hear update on vocational rehabilitation audit, $10 million federal reallocation and contractor costs

Lawmakers on the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee spent substantial time Monday on the Idaho Division of Vocational Rehabilitation (IDVR), where auditors and agency leaders described reporting failures, a federal designation of the agency as a high‑risk grantee, a $10 million federal reallocation recognized by the governor, and a contested remediation path that includes a costly consultant contract and an ongoing forensic audit.

Brooke Dupree, a Legislative Services budget analyst, told the committee the governor recognized a $10,000,000 noncognizable adjustment after the federal Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA) reallotted unused grant funds and offered them to states that could absorb them. Dupree said the reallocated funds require state matching dollars and the division requested a $2,700,000 one‑time general‑fund supplemental to provide the state match; the governor’s recommendation includes that request plus an additional $1,700,000 one‑time general fund to cover services RSA may deem ineligible.

April Renfro of the Legislative Services audits division summarized the office’s accountability report and told the committee “the division did not establish procedures and control activities to ensure compliance with appropriation laws applicable to fiscal year 2024.” The audit found internal-control weaknesses, an insufficient financial-management system, inaccurate and unsupported federal financial reporting and failures to account properly for obligations and expenditures. Those deficiencies led RSA to designate IDVR a high‑risk…