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HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania’s top fiscal watchdog has launched an audit of the state agency that oversees programs tasked with protecting Pennsylvania’s most vulnerable older adults from abuse and neglect.
In recent weeks, Auditor General Tim DeFoor’s office has requested data and spoken with top staffers at the Department of Aging, according to sources and records.
The department oversees and monitors 52 county aging agencies that investigate allegations of abuse and neglect involving adults 60 and older — many of them poor or marginalized — and assemble plans to keep them safe from harm.
A Spotlight PA investigation over the past year has revealed significant and persistent failures in Pennsylvania’s older adult protective services system, some of which have led to devastating or catastrophic outcomes.
What prompted the audit and its scope are unclear. DeFoor spokesperson April Hutcheson confirmed her agency is conducting a "performance audit” of the aging department, but she would not provide details.
However, emails and other documents reviewed by Spotlight PA show auditors have met with top aging officials to review the department’s new system for monitoring and grading the quality of abuse and neglect investigations conducted by the counties.
They have also reviewed information about the legacy monitoring system that was scrapped to make way for it, records show.
Critics fear that the new monitoring system, called the Comprehensive Agency Performance Evaluation, or CAPE, will create a false impression of how well counties are keeping older adults safe.
In a statement, aging department spokesperson Karen Gray said her agency was “cooperating fully” with the audit.
“We’re proud of the actions we’ve taken recently to increase accountability and transparency of the Area Agencies on Aging (AAA) network and improve protective services to ensure older adults are safe,” she said.
Gray did not respond to questions about how many aging staffers have been interviewed or what records the department has turned over to auditors. She also did not answer questions about the auditor general’s interest in the new CAPE monitoring system.
The auditor general’s office probes a wide swath of state-funded programs. Financial audits make up much of its work and seek to determine whether taxpayer dollars are being appropriately used.
The office also conducts performance audits, which are often its most high-profile work. These assess whether government-run programs are meeting their goals and make recommendations on how they can be run more efficiently.
Past performance audits have looked into the state’s backlog of untested rape kits, oversight of pharmacy benefit managers that provide prescription drug services for people enrolled in Medicaid, and ballooning revenue and "uncommon" spending at cyber charter schools.
Unlike reviews or investigations by other state agencies, the auditor general’s office makes the results of all its audits public. The Department of Aging audit will be made public once auditors have completed their work, Hutcheson said.
The auditor general last reviewed the aging department in 2009. The special, multiyear audit focused on the state’s network of day centers that offer services (such as meals, special trips, and other activities) for older adults. It did not examine protective services programs.
That is an area the Office of State Inspector General has probed — albeit largely in secret.
In 2018, the inspector general released a redacted version of an investigative report that focused on the quality of protective services for older adults. It found that county aging agencies were frequently not complying with state regulations for conducting quality abuse and neglect investigations, and that state aging officials were providing insufficient training to help counties conduct better work.
In 2023 and 2024, the inspector general again investigated the state’s protective services programs. Three former aging department staffers told Spotlight PA that they were interviewed extensively by the office for that probe, which had a nearly identical focus.
A spokesperson for the inspector general has refused to answer questions about its latest investigation, including whether it produced a report, and if yes, why it was never made public.
In an interview earlier this spring, Secretary of Aging Jason Kavulich, who Gov. Josh Shapiro picked to lead the department in 2023, acknowledged he was interviewed by the inspector general’s office. He said he did not know if a report was produced.
“I have never seen a report,” said Kavulich, “and I have no knowledge of a report. I did answer questions for the inspector general. They told me, when they were asking the questions, they were related to the previous [2018] investigation.”
Governors typically receive copies of inspector general reports, but Shapiro’s office has repeatedly declined to comment on whether it ever received one.
Peter Hans, a former staffer who was interviewed by the inspector general in 2023, has emailed public officials, including lawmakers and the governor’s office, to demand an explanation for what happened to the investigation.
He said he provided “an exhaustive amount of evidence regarding the lack of appropriate or effective oversight of the protective services program.”
Another former aging staffer, Sheri McQuown, said she was interviewed “for several hours over multiple days.”
“It is very alarming when our state government invests so much time, energy, and talent conducting an investigation, and the public gets no findings made public,” said Hans.
Separately, the Bureau of Audits within Shapiro’s Office of the Budget conducted a confidential assessment of the aging department’s “internal controls” over abuse and neglect investigations in 2023.
It examined an 18-month period in 2021 and 2022, and found the department “did not design and implement adequate controls to monitor compliance” with state regulations on how to conduct those investigations.
“Because of these deficiencies, funding to the [county aging agencies] may be more susceptible to fraud, waste, or abuse, and we believe additional oversight … is needed,” reads a copy of the executive summary obtained by Spotlight PA.
In this fiscal year, the state allocated just over $356 million to the 52 county aging agencies, according to aging officials. In the budget being negotiated now in the Capitol, Shapiro has proposed an additional $20 million for those agencies, as well as another $2 million for the aging department to enhance its oversight and monitoring of them.
Kavulich supports the additional funding and has said his agency is working to help counties do better work.
Earlier this year, he launched a new system for monitoring the quality of protective services offered by county aging agencies. He has said he believes it will both increase accountability and help counties pinpoint exactly where they need to make improvements in their protective services programs.
Department critics counter that the new system will only make it easier for counties to be found in compliance with strict state regulations on how to conduct quality abuse and neglect investigations, and further mask persistent failures in the state’s system for protecting older adults.
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