Ill. Seeks Repayment From Nonprofit Players in Jobs-Program ‘Disaster’
May 1, 2012 | Read Time: 1 minute
Illinois is looking to recoup more than $643,000 from five nonprofit groups that disbursed funds for a summer youth jobs program state investigators termed a “disaster,” the Chicago Tribune and the Associated Press write.
The 2008 program started by then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich, now serving a prison term on federal fraud charges, was supposed to hire up to 10,000 teens to work on state transportation projects using money from a road-construction fund.
The $7.8-million effort led to only 3,500 jobs, many of them on tasks such as moving furniture and working on golf courses, according to a state audit. A top Illinois transportation official said she was pressured by the governor’s office to continue payments to the nonprofit administrators despite red flags about how the money was being used.
One of the five organizations, the Black United Fund, has repaid its $170,000 administrative fee for work on the program, but the other four—the Chicago Area Project, Westside Health Authority, Alternative School Network, and Latin Women in Action—are disputing the bill.
