Wednesday, October 5, 2011

What?!? Give the money back?

Just because the program isn’t working? You must be nuts.
A $500 million green jobs program at the Department of Labor has so far provided only 15 percent of current participants with jobs, leading the agency's inspector general to recommend that the bulk of the money be returned to the Treasury.

The program, which was funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, aims to find employment for almost 80,000 people by providing grants for labor exchange and job training projects. With those grants expiring over the next 15 months, IG officials concluded that the program would fail to come close to that target.

…According to the Labor IG report, as of June 30, grantees had placed 8,035 participants into jobs, or 10 percent of the program's target. Long-term unemployment numbers are worse, with 1,336 participants finding jobs for six months or longer. That's 2.5 percent of current participants, and 2 percent of the program's final target of 69,717.
Return the unspent $300 million to the Treasury? Dude

3 comments:

RebeccaH said...

What? You don't believe pigs can sprout wings?

JeffS said...

Well, it is an original idea. I can't think of a single instance where an agency willingly returned unspent funds.

And I'm certain that a lot of bureaucrats are aghast at the idea. Which is why I love it.

Paco said...

Jeff: I think apoplexy is the prevailing response by the bureaucrats.