There were so many requirement for money from the Stimulus Bill that it was bound to fail. In an unprecedented moment of honesty, Obama admitted in a New York Times Magazine interview that there was “no such thing as shovel ready jobs,” in public works. Meaning, with so much government red tape and requirements nothing can get done quickly.
If you recall, in some instances to get these stimulus dollars, some businesses had to have union workers. In other cases money had to go to minority owned businesses. Other money was directed toward creating “clean energy” jobs which leads us to today’s report in the Washington Examiner and right back to Obama’s adopted hometown of Chicago.
A new report by the Department of Energy has found serious problems in stimulus-funded weatherization work — so severe were problems that they have resulted in homes that are not only not more energy efficient but are actually dangerous for people to live in.
The study, by the Department’s inspector general, examined the work of what’s called the Weatherization Assistance Program, or WAP, in Illinois. Last year, the Department awarded Illinois $242 million, which was expected to pay for the weatherization of 27,000 homes. Specifically, Energy Department inspectors took a close look at the troubled operations of the Community and Economic Development Association of Cook County, known as CEDA, which is the largest recipient of weatherization money in Illinois with $91 million to weatherize 12,500 homes. (Cook County is, of course, home to Chicago.)
The findings are grim. “Our testing revealed substandard performance in weatherization workmanship, initial assessments, and contractor billing,” the inspector general report says. “These problems were of such significance that they put the integrity of the entire program at risk.”
Department inspectors visited 15 homes that were being weatherized by CEDA and paid for by stimulus funds. “We found that 14 of the 15 homes…failed final inspection because of poor workmanship and/or inadequate initial assessments,” the report says. In eight of the homes, CEDA had come up with unworkable and ineffective plans — like putting attic insulation in a house with a leaky roof. In ten of the homes, “contractors billed for labor charges that had not been incurred and for materials that had not been installed.” The report calls billing problems “pervasive,” with seven of ten contractors being cited for erroneous invoicing. And the department found “a 62 percent final inspection error rate” when CEDA inspectors reviewed their own work.
The work was not just wasteful; it was dangerous. Department inspectors found “heat barriers around chimneys that had not been installed, causing fire hazards.” They found “a furnace [that] had not been vented properly.” The found “a shut-off valve that had not been installed on a gas stove.” And they found “carbon monoxide detectors, smoke alarms and fire extinguishers had not been installed as planned.”
And then there was fraud. At ten of the 15 homes visited, Department inspectors found examples in which “a contractor had installed a 125,000 BTU boiler, but had billed CEDA for a 200,000 BTU boiler costing an estimated $1,000. more.” Another contractor “billed for almost four times the amount of drywall actually installed.” And another “installed 12 light bulbs but had billed CEDA for 20.” (The Department found that CEDA paid almost three times the retail price for each light bulb.) “Billing issues appeared to be pervasive,” the report concludes.
Fraud, waste & abuse, poor workmanship– this is what happens when the government gets involved. Every day we hear of another episode of fraud and/or waste associated with the $864 billion in stimulus money. There was a way to prevent this from happening and ensuring that money went directly to stimulating the economy while eliminating the risk of fraud, waste, and abuse; tax cuts to individuals and corporations. Allowing people to keep more of what they earned would have allowed working men and women to pay their mortgages, pay their bills, and to spend their money on goods and services.
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