A stinging report from Florida auditors concluded last month that the Department of Elder Affairs’ Office of Public and Professional Guardians had virtually no method for overseeing the 566 professional guardians registered with the state between July 2022 and January 2024, the audit’s time frame. The OPPG, as it is called, also failed to meet internal timelines for initiating investigations into complaints about guardians.

The findings, part of a report released last month, echo the conclusions of a similar audit conducted four years earlier, also by the state Auditor General. In comments before a joint committee of senators and representatives in the Legislature last week, Deputy Auditor General Matthew Tracy said of the report: “To be honest, in some respects it was worse the second time around.”