Auditor reports Ontario did not spend autism funds as claimed.

TORONTO -- The Ontario government has launched a review of its program for autistic children after an auditor's report found the program was lax in spending money on children needing intensive therapy and its financial records were littered with inaccurate information. The Auditor found two instances where a combined $3 million was recorded as spent when not a dime of it was.

In a special audit report, Ontario's acting provincial auditor, Jim McCarter found the Ministry of Children and Youth Services' Intensive Early Intervention Program spent $16.7 million less in five years of its $44-million budget for intensive treatment for autistic children, leaving 1200 children wasting precious years on a waiting list that deems them ineligible for government-funded treatment when they reach six years of age.

Even though the program's budget had increased from $4 million to $44 million in five years, there was no change in the number of children receiving funding for therapy.

For the 547 children enrolled in the program, most received more than four hours less of therapy per week than they were funded for, which averages about $79,000 per year per child.

On average children are funded for 23 hours per week of therapy, but at one agency they received no more than 13 hours, and while therapists at approved agencies would quit or call in sick, provincial funding was still received, even if no substitute therapist was found.

McCarter also found it significantly cheaPer when parents were funded directly to find therapists on their own, citing one agency where therapy cost $126 per hour compared to $20 per hour for a private therapist hired by parents living in the same region.

The auditor, who also examined similar programs in other provinces, found in Manitoba there was no waiting list for therapy with 58 children each receiving $55,000 yearly through a parents' group while in Alberta intensive behavioural therapies have been funded for about ten years. Alberta also pays school authorities to provide support to severely disabled children between the ages of 2 1/2 years to 6 years for up to three years.

In British Columbia children five years or under with a diagnosis of autism might be eligible for services, and intensive therapy is provided for 75 children at a yearly cost of $50,000 per child. As well, families may directly receive up to $20,000 annually to hire a private therapist for preschoolers, a system that the Ontario auditor found to cost a fraction of Ontario's program.