Audit discovers ... millions of lost dollars at Scott Walker's job-creation agency

[Scuba]

http://www.wisconsingazette.com/wisconsin-gaze/audit-discovers-massive-mismanagement-problems-and-millions-of-lost-dollars-at-scott-walkers-job-creation-agency.html

Audit discovers massive mismanagement problems and millions of lost dollars at Scott Walker's job-creation agency

Gov. Scott Walker’s semi-private job creation agency does not have documentation justifying its spending on expenses and grants, according to a report released Sept. 19.

The Legislative Audit Bureau’s report examined the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation’s finances over fiscal years 2011-12 and 2012-13. Auditors found the agency’s spending on administrative expenses such as salary, marketing and travel grew from $11.2 million in the first year to $15.1 million in the second.

Auditors reviewed 223 non-payroll administrative expenditures and found instances where the spending wasn’t adequately documented to show what spending occurred, whether it was reasonable or whether it was approved. Some expenditures should have been recorded in different accounts or weren’t recorded consistently with similar types of spending. For example, $50,000 spent under a grant agreement was recorded as a services expenditure, the report said.

Spending on grants to businesses, economic development organizations and local governments grew from $14.7 million to $15.2 million during the time period, the report said. Auditors reviewed 44 grant expenditures and discovered errors in processing and that some supporting documentation wasn’t adequate. For instance, documentation for two grant expenditures didn’t include disbursement requests WEDC had approved.

[Downwinder]

1. lost dollars or dollars lost?

[Half-Century Man]

2. I, myself, am going through a program named the Department of Vocational Rehabilitation (DVR)

which is 1 part of the Wisconsin Department of Economic Development Corporation. The DVR is for potential workers who are facing special circumstances in job hunting; ie a disability, substandard education, criminal history, language issues, etc.
I signed up and was then put on a waiting list for about 4 months. I was called in to meet the DVR coordinator and passed to three experts. Two of them subjected me to paper tests to get a base line on me and determined my resume was an accurate assessment of my skills and documented education. The third expert determined my social worker had done her best within the limited state social safety net.
The DVR coordinator works for the WDEDC, the others are contractors paid by the head.
I was then passed on to another contractor, a married pair running a workforce development team out of my local job center. My contact person, by their own admission, transitioned from a blue collar job directly into this office job (it was unspecified what blue collar job it was; could have been house painter, could have been working supervisor on a production line). At no point was an education or relevant experiences presented to me as to this person's qualifications to do the job they hold a contract with the state to do.
My contact person rewrote my resume to a half page 8 bullet point summation of 35 years of experiences and education. One of the bullet points is a lie, I have little skill in customer relations. I have normally worked within a corporate structure not interacting with people we were selling to. The structure of this new resume is in direct conflict with the literature in the job center resource room on how to write a resume. The resume changed, was written for me by a friend who has degrees in business and human resources. As an example, my being bi-lingual might be a relevant point when looking for a job; my contact person though not.
I grant the point that my physical disability limits my choices in jobs, it does not detract for my skills at learning new tasks or my level of professionalism as documented in my resume.
My contact person repeatedly insisted I seriously considered working in a call center, cold calling people to sell them Comcast. I carefully explained my objections to that, citing their horrible business model, their attempts at monopolizing the internet, their treasonous purchasing of governmental officers who oversaw their industry. My contact replied "Is it a perfect job, no". My assertions I would prefer to staple my own scrotum to his desk than work as a telemarketer seem to have fallen on deaf ears.

An invesitigation by The Capital Times concluded that WEDC's official database includes documentation for only 4,796 "actual" jobs created by the agency over a two-year period. To create those jobs about $203 million in taxpayer money went out the door in grants, loans and bonding authority, the newspaper reported.

That means Walker spent $42,000 to create each job.

I have no idea how long one of these jobs created have to last to qualify as an "actual" job. If each job has to only exist for a quarter year to be counted, I say it was never an "actual" anything other than political pawn.

I consider myself fortunate. I am fully disabled and only looking for a part time job for a little extra money and to occupy my time. A part time job paying under $770.00 a month would be jut fine. I am not relying on the WDEDC to live. Evidently you can only do that by getting a contract or a loan with them. Actual results do not seem to be a deciding factor in your application.

This is a summation of my personal experiences and observations.

[Scuba]

4. Anyone who argues that being bi-lingual isn't a job qualification is unqualified for job placement.

[riversedge]

5. Do NOT hire Walker as our CEO for the next 4 years. Vote Businesswomen Mary @Burke4WI

[AleksS]

6. Holy Graft batman!

Was anyone else shocked a bit by this part:

"spending on administrative expenses such as salary, marketing and travel grew from $11.2 million in the first year to $15.1 million in the second."
When compared with this part:
"Spending on grants to businesses, economic development organizations and local governments grew from $14.7 million to $15.2 million during the time period,"

They're spending as much on administrative costs--salaries, marketing, and travel--as they are on business grants, supposedly their raison d'etre. If anyone wondered whether this WEDC things was just a way to line the pockets of Walker's cronies, I think that pretty much answers that question.

[Scuba]

8. AleksS Reading Comprehension Score: A+

[lutefisk]

7. The Chairman of the Board and COO guarantee epic fail

Hmmm, that sounds like WEDC is a giant Walker PR firm that allows corporately-connected CEOs and other Walker donors to use taxpayer dollars to conduct business. And this Texass-style crony capitalism isn't yielding Texass-like job growth- Wisconsin is dead last in job growth and dead last in income growth in the Midwest during Walker's 3 1/2 years in office.

Then again, maybe it's also a function of who's running the store at WEDC. Walker is the Chairman of the WEDC Board, despite having zero significant private sector job experience. There's also the matter of WEDC's Number Two executive, a fellow named Ryan Murray.

?1410473503

That's the now 32-year-old Murray on the right next to Walker, when both were at a taxpayer-funded trade mission to China last year. Murray was Scotty's former deputy Chief of Staff, and was put in as Chief Operating Officer at WEDC a couple of years ago as part of a revolving door of execs that was the fallout of the first reports of missing loans and lavish giveaways at taxpayer expense. And like Walker, Murray is a college dropout with no real private sector experience- just several years as GOP hack - that also is pulling in a six-figure salary at taxpayer expense.

link to the article