- Feb 12, 2007
- 59,439
- 24,106
The USDA was awarded $28B of Recovery Act funds. The Office of Inspector General has completed a review in which it identified that 18% of the funds were misspent (cf, fraud). They are calling it a "lessons learned" audit. While they identify the misuse of funds, the biggest lesson is that the government has no business doling out such money in the first place.
The Office of Inspector General (OIG) published a “lessons learned” audit on Wednesday, reviewing how well the USDA oversaw $28 billion in stimulus funds from the Recovery Act. The audit compiled results of over 80 reports conducted by the OIG.
“As a result of these reviews, we also reported monetary exceptions of over $5.1 billion, including $4.9 billion related to questionable or unsupported costs,” the audit said.
“Most programs that received Recovery Act funds were expected to quickly pump money into the economy by immediately executing infrastructure and labor intensive projects,” the OIG said. “These were known as ‘shovel ready’ projects.”
“However, our reviews discovered USDA encountered challenges because several of its programs were inherently not ‘shovel ready,’” they said.
For instance, zero projects from a watershed rehabilitation program that builds dams in local communities turned out to be “shovel ready.” Additionally, none of the projects met the law’s goals.
“Specifically, none of the 27 selected projects expended half of their funding within the first 120 days, 2 did not complete the dam rehabilitation with Recovery Act funds, and 6 were withdrawn prior to rehabilitation construction,” the audit said.
The USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service spent $943,000 on “projects that could not be completed.”...
Audit USDA Stimulus Programs Inherently Not Shovel Ready Washington Free Beacon
The Office of Inspector General (OIG) published a “lessons learned” audit on Wednesday, reviewing how well the USDA oversaw $28 billion in stimulus funds from the Recovery Act. The audit compiled results of over 80 reports conducted by the OIG.
“As a result of these reviews, we also reported monetary exceptions of over $5.1 billion, including $4.9 billion related to questionable or unsupported costs,” the audit said.
“Most programs that received Recovery Act funds were expected to quickly pump money into the economy by immediately executing infrastructure and labor intensive projects,” the OIG said. “These were known as ‘shovel ready’ projects.”
“However, our reviews discovered USDA encountered challenges because several of its programs were inherently not ‘shovel ready,’” they said.
For instance, zero projects from a watershed rehabilitation program that builds dams in local communities turned out to be “shovel ready.” Additionally, none of the projects met the law’s goals.
“Specifically, none of the 27 selected projects expended half of their funding within the first 120 days, 2 did not complete the dam rehabilitation with Recovery Act funds, and 6 were withdrawn prior to rehabilitation construction,” the audit said.
The USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service spent $943,000 on “projects that could not be completed.”...
Audit USDA Stimulus Programs Inherently Not Shovel Ready Washington Free Beacon
