(The Center Square) – The Georgia Department of Family and Children Services spent $7.3 million on software to support service authorizations, and an audit shows the software was a factor in a $71.1 million increase in costs.
The increase in service authorizations from fiscal year 2022 to fiscal year 2025 is included in an audit released Wednesday by the Department of Accounts and Audits of the Department of Family and Children Services’ out-of-home care, foster care spending, requested by the House Appropriations Committee. The cost of the service authorizations was $63.3 million in fiscal year 2022. It was $134.4 million in fiscal year 2025, according to the audit – up 112.3%.
The department used the Salesforce-based system, known as ARGO, to facilitate placement options for foster children.
“It’s an online platform for placement options and services versus manual, paper-based systems,” wrote department spokeswoman Kylie Winton in an email to The Center Square when asked about ARGO. “We often received complaints about delayed payments, and there was no centralized place to see more real-time options for homes and services for families and children with DFCS involvement.”
A breakdown of the costs for ARGO provided by the department to The Center Square shows an allocation of $2.8 million for software from 2021 to 2026, $4.5 million for build and development costs, and $48,861.06 for maintenance costs after deployment.
The agency did not answer a question about the system’s procurement process.
The use of the ARGO software system had “unintended consequences,” according to auditors, which factored into the 112% cost increase.
Services for behavioral aides were more than half of the increase, followed by mileage for supportive services and transportation.
“Central office staff stated case managers were more likely to obtain service approvals ‘just in case’ the service was needed or for many months even when the expectation should have been a decrease in usage over time,” the audit said regarding the use of the system. “Placement providers are expected to provide oversight and certain transportation for their children, and DFCS acknowledged that behavioral aides and transportation providers were likely provided in cases that were not necessary.”
The department is now using the system in a “limited capacity,” Winton said. Auditors said in the report that the department discontinued the services in November.
The limited use of ARGO appears to be reducing expenses, according to the audit. Total spending on service authorizations declined by 21% ($28.7 million) in fiscal year 2026. But department officials said as a result of the changes, some invoices for services provided in fiscal year 2026 may not have been sent.
In a statement included in the audit, department officials said ARGO “resulted in some authorizations for services that may have been delivered through other means. The system also revealed actual, ongoing needs previously masked by past years of strategic budget maneuvering by agency leadership and delayed payments to providers.”
Case managers reported another positive aspect of ARGO, state auditors said in a Thursday meeting of the Joint Study Committee on Evaluating Escalating Costs in Georgia’s Foster Care System.
“We had a lot of interviews with case managers where they indicated this led them to do more traditional case management work, where they sought out more providers in the communities that could help out these children and families, including connecting families with services they could potentially use after they left foster care,” said auditor Nathan Clubb.
Overall, the department’s out-of-home spending increased by $155 million, from $366.1 million to $521.5 million over the three fiscal years reviewed by auditors. The largest increase was in per diems, the amount given to the state’s foster-care parents.
“The General Assembly increased per diem rates twice, and changes in placement types and the use of enhanced rates also resulted in higher spending,” auditors said. “The precise amount of the increase attributable to rates is unknown due to data limitations related to enhanced rates.”
The increase is an unintended consequence of the department’s efforts to reduce the number of children temporarily housed in hotels of department offices, auditors said.
The number of children housed in hotels was 989 in 2023 and dropped to 329 in 2025. But the number is increasing again, according to the audit, with 504 children housed in hotels in 2026.
“By increasing payments and providing additional supports to providers, DFCS successfully reduced the number of children temporarily housed in hotels or DFCS offices (i.e., hoteling) from nearly 1,000 children in fiscal year 2023 to about 300-330 in 2024 and 2025,” auditors said. “Despite the decline, average annual costs (i.e., all service costs) for children who had experienced hoteling grew 62%, driven by higher per diems, increased behavioral aide usage, and heavy reliance on enhanced rates to secure difficult placements. Leadership noted that pressure to avoid hotel stays led to the authorization of more services than may have been necessary.”