 The two biggest unresolved issues involve alleged inappropriate fund transfers
and the criteria with which money was distributed to various NRI outlets.
At Wednesday’s hearing, Auditor General Bill Holland said the appropriation of a
large amount of money from one fund to another for the NRI program eleven days
before the end of Fiscal Year 2011 is troublesome, and the biggest problem with
the NRI program.
Holland’s main gripe was that money transferred to the NRI fund intended for use
in anti-violence programs was not used for the correct purposes.
“There is not one violence-prevention program that received any money for that,”
Holland said. “There was not one life that was saved, not one mentoring program.
That’s the problem.”
Barbara Shaw, former director of the Illinois Violence Prevention Authority,
defended the way the money was handled, saying that when the money was
transferred, they considered it spent in a meaningful way. But Holland disagreed
with the idea that just because money is given to a program means it was spent
for its intended purposes.
The money instead was funneled into various community groups, which Republicans
allege was used to garner political good will.
“We are going to call this transfer to the 318 fund an expenditure. It’s not an
expenditure,” Holland responded.
State Sen. Jason Barickman, R-Bloomington, co-chairs the Legislative Audit
Commission, and said Wednesday that this issue of alleged fund misappropriation
will have a tremendous impact on how the legislature budgets for this type of
program in the future.
Meanwhile, lawmakers working to piece together the puzzle of an initiative even
Gov. Quinn has admitted bears many problems are asking why high-crime
communities throughout the state went without NRI funding.
Shaw said the criteria to determine which communities received funding was
decided by the Illinois Department of Human Services, but some elected officials
remain skeptical that the resources were doled out with integrity.
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 “The source document that supposedly sets forth
these objective indicia in this analysis you speak of that goes
beyond just the most violent neighborhoods…we can’t find it,” State
Rep. Ron Sandack, R-Downers Grove, said at the hearing. “We can’t
find it. There’s no objective indication that it exists. There’s
nothing in the record that shows this analysis was actually used.
And that’s problematic.”
Shaw, who was joined by legal counsel during questioning Wednesday,
said many of the communities NRI had already been working with and
the program previously had a stellar record with a focus on
community-based organizations that applied for the money. Shaw
admitted that some organizations receiving grant money didn’t have
keep the cleanest books but they were also the organizations that
had the greatest need for the resources.
Shaw did lament the role election-year politics has
potentially played in the scandal, saying “the entire [NRI] program
had become a political football in the sense that the Republicans
seemed very disturbed by this program. They wanted it cut and wanted
it audited very early in the process.”
“Given what the audit says, maybe [the Republicans] were prescient,”
Sandack responded.
State Sen. Kwame Raoul, D-Chicago, echoed Shaw’s comments that the
bulk of the issues being raised about the NRI were political in
nature.
“This whole situation – both from a journalists’ perspective and
from a politicians’ perspective – is really a “gotcha” meeting that
were having,” Raoul said. It’s just a series of “gotcha” meetings.
It’s sort of unhealthy.”
Raoul said some committee members just want to highlight the
negative because that’s what makes news. However, he did say the
audit provided some good ideas on fixes for the program.
Barickman responded by saying the hearings were necessary in order
to review a damaging audit that raised significant questions about
the program’s operations.
Additionally, documents uploaded to the Legislative Audit
Commission’s website may show the role politics played in NRI
funding prior to the 2010 elections. The documents pertained to a
subpoena from former Quinn advisor Jack Lavin, and contained emails
revealing that the NRI was discussed as being used by the Quinn for
Governor campaign as an advantage with voters in the black
community.
The audit hearings will continue Thursday.
INN Radio Reporter Greg Bishop contributed to this report.
[This
article courtesy of
Watchdog.]
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