Congress Spends Billions on Ineffective Job Training Programs

The following are excerpts from a Policy Analysis report from the Heritage Foundation (2002)

Read the full report here:

THE NATIONAL JOB CORPS STUDY

• The estimated average increase in weekly incomes of Job Corps participants was never more than $25.20.

• The Job Corps did not increase the incomes of 18 and 19-year-olds, who represent 32 percent of the population served by the program.

• The Job Corps did not increase the incomes of Hispanics, who represent 18 percent of all youths served by the program.

• The wages of participants increased by only $0.24 per hour and then dropped to $0.22 per hour.

• During the course of the study, the average time participants spent working each week never rose above 28.1 hours. Participants never averaged working more than two hours per week more than the control group.

• Despite costing the taxpayer $16,500 per participant over an average of eight months, the program failed to move a significant number of participants into full-time employment

 

 

Filed under: congress, Job Corps, Legislative and Congressional Reports, outcome study, Research Studies, Hispanic, Job Corps study, Scientific Studies, The Heritage Foundation, The National Job Corps Study

Job Corps: One of the Most Wasteful, Least Effective Programs in Federal Government (1998)

In publishing this Congressional Testimony from Congressman John Duncan (TN) (1998) I ask my readers, “What has changed about Job Corps since this speech was given before Congress?”

1. The cost of participation for each Job Corps student has increased yearly to $28,000 per student and $1.7 billion per year.

2. Even more proof of fraud and mismanagement of funds by contractors and Job Corps has been exposed by the Office by The Office of the Attorney General in the past twelve years. The fines and repayments have increasingly amounted to the millions of dollars since this was published.

3. Much of Job Corps evidence of success has been based on flawed, unscientific studies that subsequently were proved to be number manipulation by the federal contractors and center operators.

4. It should have made national front page news when actual scientific studies proved that Job Corps had little or no influence on students earning power or increased the success of its attendees.

See this blog for the 2008 outcome study and David Mulhausen’s PhD 2008 report here:

It is important for us to learn the history of Job Corps and to read the older reports in order to see how the proof of wrong doing  in Job Corps is increasing, not lessening. Job Corps’ “truth” is well hidden by the media and sophisticated communications and public relations specialists in order to present a positive image to the public.

excerpts from Mr. Duncan’s testimony:

“However, one of its programs has become one of the most wasteful and inefficient in the entire Federal Government and should either do much, much better or be abolished. Yet this agency, because on the surface it appears to be one for young people, seems to believe it should be immune from criticism and simply get one increase after another.

I am speaking of the Job Corps. Today, it costs over $26,000 per year per Job Corps student, according to the GAO. We could give each Job Corps student an allowance of $1,000 a month, send them to some expensive private school and still save money.

The GAO reported in testimony before the Committee on Government Reform and Oversight this past July 29 that only 14 percent of program participants completed the requirements of their vocational training.
*An  earlier report found that only 4 percent end up in jobs for which they were trained, unless one does, as the Job Corps has at times done, and grossly distorts and exaggerates the figures and counts as a success about any former student who has gotten any type of job.”

*-Andrea from Job Corps Fraud-

When I worked at Shriver Job Corps in 2009 as an employment coordinator, I saw this practice still being carried out for instance, if a student completed automotive trade and got a job in their uncle’s repair shop as a part-time janitor it was considered a “trade match.”

Filed under: congress, Contractors, Fraud, Government Accounting Office, high costs, Job Corps, Legislative and Congressional Reports, number manipulation, OIG Reports, outcome study, Congressional Testimony, Congressman John Duncan, David Mulhausen, Job Corps Fraud, Job Corps number manipulation, Shriver Job Corps

More Negativity About Adams and Associates: What Else is New?

It seems that Adams and Associates of Nevada can’t keep itself out of the negative news.  For those of us who worked at a Job Corps Center run by the notorious numbers manipulator, Roy Adams, we are not surprised.  Roy presently reigns over twelve Job Corps Centers in the US:  Atterbury, Exeter, Gadsden, Glenmont, Grafton, Indypendence, Joliet, Little Rock, Shriver, Treasure Island, & Woodstock. Now, Roy is ignoring the law again and apparently is refusing to bargain with the Treasure Island Job Corps Workers Union AFT Local 6319.

Roy’s latest gaffe has the union rejecting his May 25, 2010 pay scheme which includes a pay for performance clause based on employees performance evaluation scores.

I’m going to side-track a bit here:  I worked at Shriver Job Corps in Devens, MA, for almost two years.  During those two years I was often required forego my lunch break despite my working a 8.5 hour day which supposedly included a half hour unpaid lunch. (My job was advertised  as a 40 hour per week position).  During those two years I often worked many hours overtime without pay in order to get my job done.  I never succeeded.  Despite my recruiting more employers to sign up to partner with Shriver than any of my predecessors, and having excellent references from previous employers my two performance reviews from Shriver claimed that I barely met expectations.  I believe that the raise I received amounted to 11 cents an hour. The center was also short-staffed and ill-equipped to do one’s job properly.  Staff were routinely threatened and coerced into submitting falsified reports to the Department of Labor in order to inflate performance reports.  And, as recently as early this year Adams and Associates was required to pay restitution amounting to thousands of dollars to hourly workers at Shriver who were also forced to work overtime and through their lunches in violation of Federal Law. Posts from credible sources (read the comments section of this article) who worked in Human Resource Departments from a few Job Corps Centers have made similar claims that employees are given very low scores on their performance reviews in order to increase Adams’ bottom line  and in addition, the HR employees were unwilling parties to requiring employees to falsify their time cards to state they took a lunch when they did  not.

Filed under: Adams and Associates, Atterbury Job Corps, congress, Department of Labor, Employees, Exeter Job Corps, Gadsden Job Corps, Glenmont Job Corps, Grafton Job Corps Center, Indypendence Job Corps, Job Corps, Joliet Job Corps, Labor unions, Little Rock Job Corps, Shriver Job Corps Center, Treasure Island Job Corps, Woodstock Job Crops Center, Adams and Associates, Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, Atterbury Job Corps, Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, Department of Labor, Exeter Job Corps Center, Gadsden Job Corps, Glenmont, Grafton Job Corps, Indyppendence Job Corps Center, Job Corps, Joliet Job Corps, Little Rock Job Corps, Roy Adams, Senator Mark Leno, Shriver Job Corps, Treasure Island Job Corps, Treasure Island Job Corps Workers Union AFT Local 6319, Woodstock Job Corps

Repost: Senator Tom Coburn’s 2006 Congressional Record Remarks of Job Corps Documented Fraud, Abuse and Waste

MAKING EMERGENCY SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATIONS FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDING SEPTEMBER 30 2006

Text From the Congressional Record

Coburn, Tom [R-OK]

Begin 2006-05-03 10:07:32

End 10:08:03

Watch the actual video testimony here

Mr. COBURN. Mr. President, I intend on withdrawing this amendment. I wish to make a few points before I do so.

In the supplemental bill, the Job Corps receives a direction that the Department of Labor can’t manage it, can’t use the resources to manage it. There are documented errors and documented fraud within it.

Mr. President, section 7017 of the Emergency Supplemental would mandate that Job Corps operate with less accountability. Specifically, the language would make Job Corps the only program out of 100s to be operated out of the Secretary’s office with direct contracting authority.

The Office of the Secretary of Labor does not have the staff or resources to effectively manage and conduct oversight on the Job Corps. The language of Section 7017 forbids the Secretary from shifting oversight and management personnel from any other support office in the Department of Labor. Secretary Chao is forbidden to utilize the same oversight and management that every other program normally receives from other support offices within the Department.

Section 7017 ignores recommendations from the Government Accountability Office and the Inspector General that warn against the dangers of waste, fraud, and abuse that will go undetected in the Job Corps program when one office controls all aspects of a contract-drafting, soliciting, bidding, and managing. The incestuous relationship between the contractors who operate the Job Corp program and the program officers operating the program will have no independent oversight to guard against improper payments, improper use of resources, fraudulent performance reporting resulting in fraudulent salary bonuses, and non-compliant accounting and record keeping.

Secretary Chao is trying to clean up the Job Corps program so that it effectively serves low income teenagers and young adults with a residential job training program. The Job Corps program needs accountability. According to the Office of Job Corps, the program failed to have aggressive monitoring of performance data making evaluations of the program’s effectiveness unreliable.

The Job Corps contractors are reporting misinformation regarding the number of students that successfully graduate or receive G

EDs. The contractors fail to report that almost 40 percent of the students who go through the program fail to obtain a GED or diploma. This results in fraudulent bonus increases to the contractor’s pay.

The program fails to report that the median stay of a student at a Job Corps location is 8 months, while it takes at least 12 months to successfully obtain a GED. The program also fails to accurately report how many students successful receive

job placement into the skilled jobs for which the Job Corps is supposed to equip the students. They fail to report that only 5 percent of the graduating students are placed in apprenticeships for skilled jobs. The contractors incorrectly consider job placement in unskilled jobs and the military–(obtainable without a high school education)–as benchmarks for success. This results in fraudulent bonus increases to their pay.

Examples of mismanagement illustrated in past Inspector General Reports include doctoring of program performance resulting in bonus pay, unethical use of resources, lack of cost controls and resource management. These examples makes the point for Secretary Chao–that the Job Corps program is in desperate need for accountability and oversight.

The September 30, 2005 Inspector General report, San Diego Job CORPS Center: Student Attendance and Training Data Overstated, stated that the number of vocational completions was overstated by over 50 percent. Training records did not support that students had completed all the vocation’s tasks with an appropriate level of proficiency.

In the March 30, 2005 Inspector General report, Kittrell Job Corps Center: Manipulation of Student Attendance and Training Records, the Inspector General found that Kittrell managers manipulated student attendance and training records to improve the center’s reported performance. Reported performance of high school diploma attainment and job placements was also was not reliable. This unreliable data affected Job Corps financially because reimbursed operating expenses and incentive fees paid to contracted center operators and based on reported performance.In the 2001 independent auditor’s report on the schedule of Job Corps expenses for the Turner Job Corps Center, the Inspector General found inadequate controls over payroll processing, that included hiring two instructors without proper credentials and keeping inaccurate records of leave. There was also lack of accountability over inventories of consumable supplies, evidence that the center underreported medical and dental expense, and the purchase of property and equipment that Department of

Labor did not approve prior to acquisition.

In the January 31, 2000 report entitled OIG Questions $1.3 Million of Additional Costs Claimed by Contractor Report No. 18-00-003-03-370, the Inspector General found that the contractor Will H. Hall & Son, Inc. received an additional $2,365,622 due to delays at their construction site. The Inspector General found that this contractor failed to substantiate its claim that various events under the Department of Labor’s contract constituted compensable construction delays caused by the Department

of Labor. Certain amounts claimed were either double counted as both direct and indirect costs, already covered under the original firm fixed-price contract, or based on estimates instead of actual costs incurred.

Section 7017 of the Emergency Supplemental will virtually guarantee that we will see many more examples of [Page: S3939]

waste, fraud and abuse within the Job Corps program. Furthermore, why is the Senate being asked to make a program change to a 40-year-old program within an Emergency Supplemental bill? Why hasn’t the Department of Labor been consulted in making this unprecedented move away from accountability? Why hasn’t the Appropriations Committee or the Committee

on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions held a single hearing about this radical change to the Job Corps program?

Due to time constraints and my desire to move Senate business forward, I ask unanimous consent to withdraw my amendment.

Filed under: congress, Department of Labor, Fraud, government oversight, Job Corps, Job Corps Centers, Kittrell Job Corps Center, Legislative and Congressional Reports, Management and Training Corporation, number manipulation, Turner Job Corps Center, Congressional Record, Department of Labor, Job Corps contractor fraud, Job Corps Fraud, Kittrell Job Corps Center, Management and Training Corporation, Oversight, Senator Tom Coburn, Turner Job Corps Center

Job Corps One of the Most Wasteful, Least Effective Programs… from the Congressional Record (1998)

Read what Congressman John Duncan, (R) Tennessee said about Job Corps  here:

“…We could give each Job Corps student an allowance of $1,000 a month, send them to some expensive private school and still save money…”

“…the people who get the big bucks out of this (Job Corps) are the fat cat contractors and the bureaucrats who run the program…”

Filed under: congress, Contractors, Legislative and Congressional Reports, Congressional Record, Congressman John Duncan, Job Corps Least Effective, Job Corps waste

Efforts to Restructure the Administration of USFS Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) underway…

Representatives from the National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE) lobbied congress members in an effort to have the CCC administered by the USDA instead of its shared administration with the DOL.

Read the story here:

Filed under: congress, Newspaper Reports, CCC, Civilian Conservation Corps, DOL, National Federation of Federal Employees, NFFE, USDA, USFS