"We can no longer make excuses," D.C. Council member Sandy Allen (D-Ward 8) yesterday told officials of the Department of Human Services and Department of Health, expressing outrage at the neglect and abuse of mentally retarded people in the District's care detailed in a Washington Post investigation that appeared in the paper Sunday and yesterday.

City officials at the hearing acknowledged "severe" deficiencies in their monitoring of care given to the city's retarded and said that they would work diligently to reverse the damage of "decades of inattention."

Allen, chairman of the Committee on Human Services, responded sharply when one Human Services official said reforms would be implemented in "one or two years."

"One or two years?" she said. "How many vulnerable people are going to be hurt in those one or two years? I don't even want to hear another study. We need to see it yesterday."

Allen said she would request additional dollars for the department to hire more monitors and caseworkers. The department, she said, needs to increase the frequency of its site inspections and client visits to ensure residents are getting quality services.

Allen, who has chaired the committee for 1 1/2 years, said she had received anecdotal information about abuse and neglect but was surprised by the large number of allegations of abuse.

In other reaction to the series, a Department of Human Services spokesman said yesterday that Mayor Anthony A. Williams had called the head of the agency on Sunday to demand an accounting of the group home situation.

Council member David Catania (R-At Large), the only other member of the five-member committee to attend yesterday's discussion, accused officials of passing the blame. Catania was incredulous that officials were unable to explain what steps are taken to protect the clients' personal funds.

"I think we can agree the system you have in place now is a failure," Catania told the officials. The council member challenged Williams to commit the resources to improve oversight of the group homes. "I want these people taken care of, I want their money protected and I want those who abuse them to be thrown in jail," he said.

After the hearing, Wayne Casey, deputy director of the Department of Human Services, reiterated his argument that the agency doesn't have the resources to do its job.

"When we had our budget reduced in 1995 and '96, at a number of council meetings I said this will be a devastating impact on human services for all our clients by the year 2000. And this is where we are," Casey said.

Frances Bowie, administrator of the Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities Administration, said the council members' questions were "fair."

"We have providers who are bad apples and may have taken advantage of the inability of government to properly monitor them," Bowie said. She went on to insist that the agency has already identified its shortcomings and developed an action plan that includes the hiring of additional monitors.