Probably the most important aim of an independent audit of Butler County Children and Youth Services that is set to begin on Tuesday is preventing a future incident like the one currently haunting the agency.

The agency has been embarrassed by the discovery that it continued to make foster care payments to a Penn Township couple for approximately five years after they no longer were caring for children who were under the agency's supervision.

The case is proof of a major breakdown in the management of the agency's foster care funds. In addition to the goal of preventing such breakdowns in the future, the audit will examine whether there have been any other improper payments.

Like county leaders, the taxpayers deserve assurance that there have been no other improper payments. But if there have been, the taxpayers, as well as county officials, deserve to know how many cases and how many dollars were involved.

The approximately $11,900 that the county will expend for the audit, which will be conducted by the Pittsburgh firm of Grossman Yanak & Ford, will be money well spent, regardless of the audit's results.

On the need for an independent audit, County Commissioner Dale Pinkerton put the issue into the right perspective when he said, "If we did it internally and if there ever was a question, we would be criticized highly. To have an agency audit themselves, it just doesn't work that way."

County Controller Jack McMillin apparently pushed the commissioners in the right direction in terms of an independent audit. When county officials initially began talking about an internal review, McMillin refused to release payments to CYS foster parents until a plan to correct the agency's financial controls problems was established.

The hiring of Grossman Yanak & Ford answers that demand.

"They'll make recommendations to prevent it (improper payments) from happening again," McMillin said in an interview.

Meanwhile, the controller's office will be helping the county save some money by, as McMillin described, "doing some of the grunt work required to get this matter under way."

The county would have had to pay about twice as much as what the Pittsburgh firm will be paid if the controller's office were not involved in the preliminary preparations.

Meanwhile, the legal process continues regarding the foster care payment case that thrust the CYS into a negative spotlight. A preliminary hearing is set for Dec. 2 for Tammy Lynn Smith, 42, of Penn Township before District Judge Sue Haggerty.

Smith was charged Sept. 30 with theft of property delivered by mistake and receiving stolen property in connection with the $39,162 in improper payments that she allegedly received between the spring of 2004 and June of this year.

Smith and her husband, Ronald, cared for a boy and girl from January to March 2004.

Ronald Smith has not been charged in connection with the payments. Although his name is on the couple's bank account, into which payments were delivered by direct deposit between May 2006 and June 2009 (prior to that, checks were sent to the couple), Tammy Smith allegedly exercised sole responsibility for the account.

While the improper payments have raised questions about CYS' internal controls past and present, the case involving the Smiths began while now-retired CYS director Ed Skrocki headed the agency.

Current director Joyce Ainsworth is worthy of criticism for not initiating a thorough review of the agency's operations and money disbursements after assuming CYS' top position following Skrocki's retirement in the spring of 2008.

Ainsworth has refused to divulge what focused attention on the Smiths' alleged improper payments. In addition, she described the agency's accounting system as "a pretty complex system" that would be difficult to explain.

However, depending on how the case winds its way through the criminal justice system, Ainsworth might be required to provide a detailed explanation — to which the public would be privy.

As an Oct. 8 Butler Eagle editorial observed, the Smith case "depicts a long-term pattern of shoddy oversight" that merits a thorough investigation. As now planned, that probe will get under way in the coming week.

The Smith case is a major black eye for CYS. It must be hoped that the audit proves that there weren't any more cases like it — and that there will be strict controls preventing a similar case in the future.