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.
“It appears to be some kind of fraud,” David Williams said, president of the Taxpayers Protection Alliance.
Williams’ job is to track how tax dollars are spent. He said $400 may seem like a drop in the bucket, but those costs can quickly add up. “It’s groceries for one person.”
On a bigger scale, Williams notes this is the kind of spending lawmakers need to pay attention to. The state is projected to face a $1.4 billion budget gap heading into the 2026 legislative session.
“State legislature is looking for places to cut spending, looking for ways to save money … This is the low-hanging fruit of expenses the legislature and the governor should be looking at,” Williams said.
Spotlight on Maryland has asked DHS to clarify its policies on employee expenses and what’s considered permissible in addition to filing a public records request to learn more.
As the DHS email states, the massages were for eight employees on Sept. 29 during a leadership training session held at the Sheraton Hotel, 903 Dulaney Valley Road, in Towson.
The invoice contains no reference to massages, despite the business having the word “massages” in its name. Spotlight on Maryland is not naming the massage business out of concern for the business owner’s safety and potential retaliation.
The incident highlights gaps in DHS’s financial controls and raises broader questions about how local offices spend wellness funds with little visibility from state finance officials.
Spotlight on Maryland reached out to the employee, a supervisor and DHS press secretary Lilly Price.
“We are reviewing the services offered by the vendor in question to determine if this was a permissible use of funds. This $400 expense was within the local department’s delegated fiscal authority for approval. If we find state standards were violated, we will take appropriate action,” Price said in a statement.
Spotlight on Maryland repeatedly asked Price whether this spending is considered a permissible use of taxpayer dollars and whether massages are a covered expense under departmental policy. The agency did not directly answer those questions and referred only to the brief written statement acknowledging the matter is under review.
Here are Spotlight’s questions that remain unanswered:
- Is it a permissible activity, under DHS policy, for state employees to use taxpayer money to get massages?
- What is considered a wellness activity under DHS?
- What action, if any, will be taken in this situation?
Williams said this incident raises broader questions, like how often such expenses occur and whether similar charges have been approved in recent years.
“I’m concerned there are a lot of other expenses like this. They call it one thing, but they’re spending money on something else,” Williams said. “There appears to be more investigation that needs to be done. Has this been done before?”
Have a story tip? Email Spotlight on Maryland at spotlightonmaryland@sbgtv.com or call the hotline at 410-467-4670. Spotlight on Maryland is a collaboration between FOX45 News, WJLA in Washington, D.C., and The Baltimore Sun. Tessa Bentulan can be reached at tbentulan@sbgtv.com.