NORMAN — The Oklahoma State Department of Health employed a series of “accounting tricks” to provide the illusion of a balanced budget, but has spent more than its annual revenues since 2011, the agency disclosed Monday.

The Health Department will not be able to pay its employees by Nov. 29 unless it receives $30 million in supplemental funding from the Oklahoma Legislature, Interim Health Commissioner Preston Doerflinger said.

“We cannot allow this agency to fail,” Doerflinger said during a news conference at the Cleveland County Health Department in Norman. “This agency is the state's health safety net for its citizens.”

Doerflinger revealed more about the department's tangled finances on Monday, including that the department traded and borrowed funds from different accounts within the agency. Accounting periods were also left open for multiple years.