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D.C. Council member Sandy Allen (D-Ward 8) expressed the outrage of many at the neglect and abuse of mentally retarded people in city-sponsored group homes. This deplorable situation, detailed in a Post probe published on Sunday and Monday, was topic A in Mrs. Allen's hearing with Human Services and Health Department officials. But before council and financial control board members single out municipal scapegoats for the ineptitude and private profiteering in the group home program, a bit of recent history ought to be recalled.

The following is from a Jan. 30, 1997, Post interview with acting Human Services director Wayne D. Casey:

Q: What about monitoring contracts that you have in place? Is that a problem?

A: It's a serious problem -- and always has been a problem. We've never been able to do it effectively. We don't do it as I speak now."

Mr. Casey was discussing the impact of a chaotic procurement system and massive budget cuts on DHS, a large and troubled agency that serves the city's most desperate residents. He said the city lacked staff to know what it was paying for or getting in services. "People have horror stories," he acknowledged.

Every responsible District official -- including mental retardation and human service staff, the mayor, council and control board -- knew or should have known that the cuts in human services would eventually reach the District's most vulnerable aid recipients. They knew or should have known how systemic were governmental shortcomings such as poor contract monitoring, bureaucratic miscommunication and failures to punish contractors who mistreat and abuse the retarded. Katherine Boo's series shows what happens when negligence, greed and official shortsightedness keep company: It is always the weakest who suffer and the taxpayers who pay.

Human Services Director Jearline Williams, on the job for two years, now says there will be "dramatic and visible improvements" in the group home operation. How fast? "One or two years," one Human Services official told the council. Having none of that, council member Allen retorted, "How many vulnerable people are going to be hurt in those one or two years?.... We need to see it yesterday." Again, Ms. Allen spoke for many.