State Auditor Marion Higa yesterday harshly criticized the agency assigned to protect abused children, saying she knows how children are falling through cracks in the system.

Her 48-page report — requested by the Legislature last year — said the state Department of Human Services does not have sufficient “management controls” to ensure that all reports of child abuse and neglect are investigated.

For example, Higa said, she was surprised to learn workers were not logging all calls about abuse. “Right from the get-go, you’ve lost track,” she said in an interview.

Supervisors’ review of cases that will not be investigated is insufficient and the assessment of possible harm is arbitrary despite a new system implemented last October, she said.

“Even though you had guidelines, they were not followed,” Higa said. “You had supervisors with their own approaches to things and you had workers with their own approaches to things.”

As a result, abuse reports that are required to receive a response within 24 hours are not always investigated in a timely manner — “or at all,” her report said.

Pat Snyder, administrator of the department’s Social Services Division, said that the audit was fair and that the department agrees with most of the findings.

“I think it is a very good attempt to point out very good basic management practices,” Snyder said. “I don’t think it means our services are not good, but these are procedures that should be looked at.”

The auditor’s report also said the final disposition of unconfirmed abuse reports “is sometimes questionable.” The audit found several pending investigations that were 60 days to a year overdue. Some cases were even older, including one dating from 1993.

The Legislature requested the report after the community was stunned by several high-profile child-abuse cases, including several alleged killings.

State Rep. Dennis Arakaki, (D-Kalihi Valley, Kamehameha Heights), who called for the audit last year, said he was not surprised by what it found.

“I think the agency has more or less operated under a cloak of confidentiality and put up these screens saying they had to protect children,” Arakaki said. “But in doing so, it also created a darkness where people were not being held accountable. There really was no look at how things can improve.”

Foremost in the minds of many who requested the audit was Reubyne Buentipo Jr., a 5-year-old victim of repeated child abuse. Since his last battering — allegedly by his mother — Reubyne has been in a persistent vegetative state.

“We were asked: Where were the holes kids are falling though?” Higa said. “It has been a puzzle to people and legislators. It’s a frustrating thing. I think we found where the holes are.”

The audit found that communication between the department’s Child Welfare Services Branch, police and court officials was “ineffective,” so criminal investigations were not begun.

For example, in a review of one month’s worth of cases involving suspected sex assaults on children, the agency failed to refer about 40 percent of its reports to police, the audit said. However, the audit also noted that police do not uniformly inform the department of its reports of suspected child abuse.

Snyder said she could not second-guess Higa’s findings. “There may be lots of little cracks and they may not all be at DHS,” Snyder said. “If she can help us identify any, we certainly want that.”

However, Snyder said that just because a call is not recorded or a potential case not investigated does not mean that the decision-making process is arbitrary.

“It just means the auditor doesn’t see it,” she said. “The social workers are trained and we have confidence in their ability to use their professional judgment. I don’t think it means that our staff, wholesale, is making arbitrary decisions. We do feel confident that supervisors are supervising the staff.”

On average, the department receives 20,000 calls a year and about three-fourths of them have nothing to do with child abuse or neglect, she said.

“We have to see what needs to be changed, if anything,” Snyder said. “Do we need different procedures or do we need to streamline procedures?”

Arakaki, chairman of the House Human Services and Housing Committee, said he would hold an informational briefing on the audit early next week. During this legislative session, Arakaki said, he would look for ways to help the department.

Arakaki also singled out the unresolved case of a missing child-abuse victim from Hilo, Peter Kema Jr. The child, usually called Peter Boy, was 7 years old when he was last seen by family members nearly two years ago.

Although his case was reported to Child Protective Services, state officials and Big Island police disagree over who should have responded and when.

“I know they don’t mention this in the audit, but he is sort of an example of what happens when there is not any monitoring or sharing of information and cooperative investigation,” Arakaki said. “It is sort of a sad example of what can result.”

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