A decade after a team of Los Angeles County auditors first detailed the indiscretions of multiple people associated with the private foster care agency Teens Happy Homes, the county has finally decided to cancel its contract with the organization.

"We are very pleased with today's development. Though we wish it had happened sooner, we are pleased that it happened," said Roxane Marquez, a spokeswoman for County Supervisor Gloria Molina.

The problems with Teens Happy Homes first came to light when auditors noted that many individuals working for the agency engaged in multiple levels of fraud. From purchasing beer and cigarettes with publicly funded money to writing out unauthorized checks to their personal bank accounts worth thousands of dollars, the auditors found all sorts of problems with the agency's employees.

The auditors soon recommended that an immediate probe be launched into the foster care agency, especially considering the fact that they had billed the state and county in excess of $100,000 for services they never performed. That investigation, however, never materialized.

Instead of an investigation, Teens Happy Homes was actually given more funds. The county Board of Supervisors renewed its contract with the organization soon after, increasing its value from $1 million to over $3 million. Why such a generous contract was awarded to such a suspicious agency has many people scratching their heads.

"There are some clear failures indicating the need for financial auditing and performance oversight," said Robert Fellmeth, director of the Children's Advocacy Institute at the University of San Diego School of Law. "There is a need for systemic reform in this regulatory scheme."

Unfortunately, that failure by the county Board of Supervisors to properly evaluate the performance of Teens Happy Home may have also lead to several instances of child abuse and even the 2008 death of infant Tajiere Goldsmith.

"My marching orders are to figure out what's going on and fix it," Philip Browning, director of the Department of Children and Family Services, said. "I think we have a long way to go in terms of improving the monitoring of these agencies."

With the contractual ties between the county and Teens Happy Homes now severed, Browning and others are enlisting the help of investigators to look into other possible instances of neglect by the agency.