A state home for intellectually disabled adults improperly kept nearly $80,000 that it should have returned to the state general fund at the end of fiscal year 2009, the Office of Legislative Audits reported Friday.

The state Department of Mental Health and Human Hygiene, which operates the Potomac Center in Hagerstown, has agreed to return the $79,800 to the general fund, according to a letter signed by Secretary John M. Colmers and included in the OLA report.

Auditors for OLA, an agency of Department of Legislative Services, found that the Potomac Center did not have adequate records to susbtantiate general fund expenditures it had accrued on June 30,2009, the last day of the fiscal year.

Under the comptroller’s State Policy on Accounts Payable, Accrued Expenditures and Encumbrances, expenditures should be accrued only when goods or services have been received before the end of the fiscal year but not paid. State law requires that any funds remaining at the end of the fiscal year be reverted to the state’s general fund.

The auditors said the Potomac Center is responsible for establishing and maintaining effective internal control of financial records, but acknowledged that errors or fraud might still occur and not be detected.

They said their audit “did not disclose any conditions that we consider to be significant deficiencies in the design or operation of internal control that could adversely affect the Center’s ability to maintain reliable financial records, operate effectively and efficiently, and/or complyu with applicable laws, rules, and regulations.”