BALTIMORE (WBFF) — A Maryland Department of Human Services employee directed $400 of taxpayer money to pay for massages for themselves and colleagues — an expense the employee tried to conceal by instructing the massage business to alter its invoice so the state would approve it, according to documents obtained by Spotlight on Maryland.
The records show an employee in DHS’s Adult Services Division hired a mobile massage business to provide services for eight workers in mid-September. In an email to the business owner, the employee wrote: “here is what I need the invoice to look like in order to be approved by finance as we do not pay for massages but we do pay for a wellness activity.”
A single $400 invoice was then submitted to Adult Services and paid for with public funds. The invoice listed the service as “facilitating wellness activity for APS leadership team during leadership training” — wording that matches the language the DHS employee requested…