BATON ROUGE, LA – Following a state audit revealing the Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services failed to correct repeat findings dating back more than a decade, agency officials defended the missing paperwork Monday as part of an “aggressive long-term decluttering initiative.”
According to auditors, several of the same issues involving documentation, eligibility verification, and federal compliance have continued appearing in reports since 2012. DCFS officials, however, insisted the agency was simply “ahead of its time” on modern office efficiency trends.
“We recognized years ago that excessive paperwork was creating an uncomfortable work environment,” said one DCFS administrator while unsuccessfully searching for a missing audit response. “By gradually removing documents entirely, we’ve created a much cleaner atmosphere for our employees and have cut audit times down from days to minutes.”
Sources say employees have embraced the policy so thoroughly that some offices now function with only a folding table, a couple of ink pens, and one of those yellow writing pads.
The department also announced plans to digitize remaining records immediately after locating them “sometime in the future.”
