WASHINGTON --- Senator Chuck Grassley is asking the Secretary of Education what is being done to safeguard stimulus dollars that were given to school districts with a track record of fiscal mismanagement, according to independent audits.
In 2009, an extra $98 billion was directed to the Education Department by the stimulus bill.
Grassley said his concern is that one of the school districts being given $343 million in stimulus funds already owes the Department of Education $17 million for reimbursements that were deemed unallowable. Another recipient of stimulus funds from the Education Department couldn’t account for more than $300,000 in property when audited and failed to file required financial audits.
“You have to wonder if good money is being thrown after bad, in these cases,” Grassley said. “Given the findings of the Inspector General, there’s reason to be concerned about how the stimulus dollars will be managed by the recipients in the examples cited in my letter of inquiry. The Education Department has a responsibility to make sure the tax dollars being spent in the name of stimulus are not subject to waste, fraud and abuse.”
Grassley is working to hold numerous federal agencies accountable for how stimulus dollars are spent, and he’s focused his oversight where Inspectors General have found previous, recent bad management of tax dollars. He also has asked the Office of Management and Budget to report on its oversight of all stimulus spending. Separately, Grassley has asked the Office of Management and Budget for information about stimulus dollars spent to purchase products made in foreign countries that might not afford fair market access to U.S. products, following news reports that stimulus money might go to wind energy turbines made in China.
Click here to read Grassley’s letter to the Secretary of Education.
Click here to read the Inspector General report on the Virgin Island’s Department of Education.
Click here to read the Inspector General report on the Philadelphia School District.