While the Congress has almost completely done away with "pork barrel spending" in yearly budget bills, the various arms of the Executive Branch are still handing out billions of dollars in grants each year, and we saw again on Monday that some of those awards aren't exactly getting spent as planned.
The latest example came as the Inspector General's office at the Department of Justice issued another review of how grant money was spent for a mentoring program in Philadelphia known as "People For People."
People for People (PFP) was given two grants worth almost $980,000 to do mentoring programs from the children of parents who are currently in prison.
"The objective of the grants was to deliver services that provide children of prisoners with the necessary intellectual, social, physical, and psychological/emotional supports to be ready and able productive members of society," read the DOJ report.
But the bullet points of what was found raised questions as to whether your tax dollars were being properly spent.
Among the findings:
+ The Justice Department "questioned a total of $893,445 in grant-related expenditures" (out of almost $980,000 in total grant awards - or over 91%)
+ PFP spent $232,754 of its grant money on overhead, like "rent, telephone bills, depreciation, insurance, utilities, equipment, maintenance, and cleaning."
+ Instead of mentoring 1,100 children as planned, the total was closer to 300.
+ $420,729 of the grant money was spent by PFP "for personnel and fringe benefit costs that were unallowable."
+ $8,935 in money went to gift cards for the kids who were being mentored.
PFP also evidently received grant money from the Department of Health and Human Services for a similar program, but it wasn't immediately clear if investigators there had audited that program as well.
In its own reply, PFP criticized the findings of the Justice Department and pointed the finger back at the feds as well; you can read the full report on the Justice Department's web site.
"We take responsibility for some of the collaborative breakdown," PFP wrote in its reply, "however, we believe DOJ must also bear some of the responsibility," as the group at one point accused investigators of using "inaccurate, unreliable and incomplete" information.
In fact there was a list of multiple projects in cities all over America, totaling $45.6 million in grants for such mentoring programs.
"Mentors are the heroes who provide a trusting relationship with a child or youth in need," said the Health and Human Services Secretary, as HHS gave People for People $126,000.
Just to throw you a curve, that quote, the $126,000 and the $45.6 million in grants for mentoring programs were from 2004, in a special initiative of the Bush Administration.
"The mentoring children of prisoners program is a three-year initiative put forth by President Bush in his 2003 State of the Union address," read the news release, noting it had been "fully funded" by the Congress.
So, before you start criticizing one party on this kind of spending, it evidently didn't spring up overnight like the weeds around my bushes.
Grants by the Executive Branch make little news, are often difficult to find, and garner little attention in Washington, D.C. It would be different if that money was stuffed in a giant spending bill, instead of just being doled out by the Department of (Fill in the blank).
