WBRZ - Baton Rouge

BATON ROUGE - A Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals employee is accused of misappropriating public funds.

DHH's Bureau of Health Care Integrity conducted an internal investigation and found the employee allegedly misappropriated more than $800,000 in public funds by depositing checks made payable to DHH into a non-DHH account, then withdrawing funds from that account for personal use.

The employee was placed on leave and DHH is taking steps to terminate the employee.

The department is putting in more measures in place to prevent similar incidents in the future, including enforcing more stringent internal accounting and reporting procedures.