Maryland - Anne Arundel County audit blames new Y2k compliant system for $11 mill bookkeeping errors, computer problems

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(See italics [mine] for statements about Y2k glitches)

Metro In Brief

Compiled from reports by staff writers Sylvia Moreno, Matthew Mosk, Marylou Tousignant and Peter Pae and the Associated Press.

Sunday, March 19, 2000; Page C03

MARYLAND

Compromise Reached on Tobacco Money

Members of the Maryland House of Delegates settled on a tentative plan yesterday to spend money the state will receive from its settlement with tobacco companies.

The plan includes a provision that would add $2 million a year for cancer treatment at hospitals in Montgomery and Prince George's counties.

The compromise agreement, offered by House Majority Leader John A. Hurson (D-Montgomery), resolved concerns by Washington area delegates that too much of the money would be directed to Baltimore.

The complete plan, which targets more than $90 million to cancer treatment and research, smoking prevention programs and tobacco crop conversion, is expected to come to the House floor for a final vote this week.

House Committee Agrees on Budget A Maryland House of Delegates committee agreed on a House version of the state budget late Friday, after a lengthy debate over the governor's plan to supply textbooks to private schools.

The Appropriations Committee voted 15 to 13 to include the $6 million in support for the school book program.

Critics have argued that spending state money on private schools at a time when public schools are in need sets an unwelcome precedent. The budget, with the textbook provision, is expected to come to the House floor for a final vote this week.

Bookkeeping Remedies Offered in Arundel

Anne Arundel County Executive Janet S. Owens offered a series of proposals Friday to remedy the serious bookkeeping errors discovered in the annual audit of the county's finance department.

The audit uncovered an $11 million imbalance between the amount the county has recorded as spent and the paper receipts it has collected. Budget officials blamed a staff shortage and computer problems for the errors.

Owens promised an immediate search to fill two accounting office positions that have been vacant since last fall.

And she said she would ask the county's law office to undertake an investigation into the problems with the county's new computer system, which it purchased last year to avoid Y2K glitches.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/2000-03/19/272l-031900-idx.html

-- Lee Maloney (leemaloney@hotmail.com), March 19, 2000


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