Federal Government Criticizes New York on Disabled Care ALBANY - The federal government sharply criticizes New York's oversight of the developmentally disabled in a report obtained by The New York Times on Tuesday, saying the state agency charged with oversight lacks independence from the governor's office, failed to account for how it is spending public money and has broken several requirements of federal law. The report, from the Department of Health and Human Services in Washington, focuses on the Commission on Quality of Care and Advocacy for Persons With Disabilities, which is supposed to be a watchdog over much larger state agencies that care for the developmentally disabled and the mentally ill but has been sharply criticized as not fulfilling its mission. The report found that the commission's very structure worked against its oversight role. Among other things, both the commission and the agencies it is supposed to oversee, including the State Office for People With Developmental Disabilities, report to the governor's office. In many other states, similar watchdog groups are set up as independent nonprofit organizations. The report notes that the commission's chief cannot even make independent hiring decisions. The report also cites the commission for inadequate policies with regard to the handling of confidential records and for insufficient input from families of the disabled. It says the commission failed to turn over documents detailing how federal money was being spent in the agency, as required by law. And the report found that there was "no evidence of data-driven strategic planning to establish goals" in the agency. The report was prompted by a series of articles in The Times last year that examined problems of abuse, neglect and financial mismanagement in the state's system of caring for the developmentally disabled. Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo's administration has undertaken a reform effort over the last nine months, but the report highlights that the administration has much work ahead, including a potential reorganization of the commission. The inspection of the agency took place in July, four months after the Cuomo administration installed Roger Bearden, former director of the Disability Law Center at New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, to head the commission. The federal government, which provides billions of dollars in Medicaid money to New York, has given the Cuomo administration until Friday to respond to the report, and the administration has already circulated to stakeholders plans for public hearings on the future of the Commission on Quality of Care. Sharon B. Lewis, commissioner of the federal Administration on Developmental Disabilities, a branch of the Health and Human Services Department that drafted the report, said in a statement that her agency was "confident that the state is taking appropriate action to address the concerns outlined in our December letter, and look forward to continued improvements." In his own statement, Mr. Bearden said the Commission on Quality of Care had already been undertaking reform efforts, adding that the federal report "provides additional valuable guidance on how to make the federal programs currently administered by C.Q.C. more effective in serving New Yorkers with disabilities." Mr. Cuomo's office had no immediate comment on the report. The Times has outlined numerous problems at the Commission on Quality of Care. Among them is that 10 percent of all deaths of the developmentally disabled in state care reported to the commission were listed as occurring from unknown causes in the commission's database, suggesting widespread failures in the state's diligence in finding out why people are dying. One in six deaths in state and privately run homes, or more than 1,200 in the past decade, have been attributed to either unnatural or unknown causes, according to data obtained by The Times. The agency has also been plagued by minimal disclosure in the past. Mr. Bearden's predecessor, Jane G. Lynch, never spoke to a reporter during her nearly three-year tenure, her staff members said.