Audit Reports of Job Corps from the Office of the Inspector General (OIG)

The following link will take you to the Office of the Attorney General’s (OIG) website.  You will find audit reports where Job Corps Centers and Job Corps Contractors did not follow required policy procedures in the areas of awarding sub contracts to vendors. And, where numbers and statistics where overstated in order to bring the center higher in overall rankings. The very first one speaks of questionable “overstatement” of costs by MTC Corporation (Management and Training Corporation) of over one million dollars.  Take note, MTC is a name you will hear often in the audit reports for their continuing practice of “overstating” costs and erroneous records reflecting “overstated” outcomes on their reports. OIG says “this is a continuing problem.” Read the reports…

Filed under: Adams and Associates, Contractors, Department of Labor, DOL, Fraud, Improper billing, Job Corps, Job Corps Centers, Management and Training Corporation, number manipulation, OIG Reports, Performance, Shriver Job Corps Center, Audit, Job Corps, Job Corps Center, Management and Training Corporation, MTC, Office of the Inspector General, OIG, overstating, Shriver Job Corps Center

Office of the Inspector General Report Minact Corporation August 2010

Read the entire OIG report here:

Mold, non compliance with safety and health inspections and retention of potentially violent students… the continuing saga of Job Corps and its “for profit” corporations who place greed before its public trust…

The newest Office of the Inspector General Report published August 10, 2010, found that Minact Corporation did not follow the requirements for reporting financial expenditures and managing safety and health programs at its Excelsior Springs Job Corps Center in Missouri.

The questionable expenditures amounted to $203,921 and in addition to not performing safety and health inspections as required, Minact did not follow federal disciplinary procedures nor convene all the Fact Finding boards (FFB’s) for level I and II infractions committed by students.  These level infractions include acts of physical violence committed upon others or threats of violence towards others. Non compliance with the regulations could expose staff and students to violent acts and unsafe conditions on centers. Readers may remember that I reported on this in this blog about Shriver Job corps retaining students who should have been separated because we needed the numbers in order to improve our OBS (On board Strength).  See article here:

Of particular interest to me are the photos of the mold growing on the ceiling of the culinary storage area, exposed ceiling tiles in a classroom, and protruding electrical outlet boxes on a classroom floor (Excelsior Springs Job Corps, page 13 and 14 of OIG report).  Would you want to send your child there… further… you are paying for this program through your taxes, are you satisfied that your tax dollars are being put to good use?

Minact Corporation operates the following Job Corps Centers:  Batesville Job Corps, Dr. Benjamin L. Hooks Job Corps, Gulfport Job Corps, Quentin Burdick Job Corps, Shreveport Job Corps, Excelsior Springs Job Corps, Gerald R. Ford Job Corps Civilian Conservation Centers, Hubert H. Humphrey  Job Corps, St. Louis Job Corps

Filed under: Batesville Job Corps, Contractors, Dr. Benjamin L. Hooks Job Corps, Excelsior Springs Job Corps, Gerald R. Ford Job Corps, Gulfpot Job Corps, Improper billing, Job Corps, MINACT, OIG Reports, Quentin Burdick Job Corps, Quentin Burdick Job Corps Center, Shreveport Job Corps, Shriver Job Corps Center, St. Louis Job Corps, Batesville Job Corps, Dr. Benjamin L. Hooks Job Corps, Excelsior Springs Job Corps, financial expenditures, Gerald R. Ford Job Corps, Gulfport Job Corps, Minact Corporation, Office of the Inspector General, Quentin Burdick Job Corps Center, safety and health violations, Shreveport Job Corps, Shriver Job Corps

Office of the Inspector General’s Message from 1999

Nothing ever changes… look at the names in this report and the fraud OIG found from eleven years ago: Adams and Associates (employee alleges fraud) and National Plastering Industry’s Joint Apprenticeship Trust Fund ($996,242 in disallowed costs).

But we still keep granting them contracts despite their number inflation and manipulation of records. Read a few excerpts:

-from The Inspector General’s message page 12 regarding the Mississippi Job Corps Center owned by Adams and Associates

“Our review of 67 student records found that 28 student records (42 percent) were improperly altered, inaccurate, or incomplete. Consequently, the number of students the Center reported as “vocational completers” was inflated and students were improperly paid training completion bonuses. Further, the altered records gave false assurances that the affected students received vocational training.”

-from the Semi-Annual Report to Congress page 57 about the National Plastering Industry’s Joint Apprenticeship Trust Fund

The OIG questioned a total of $996,242 of direct costs claimed by the trust fund and the grant officer disallowed all of these questioned costs.

The Report to Congress also mentions The US Forest Service and Connecticut Job Corps Center and its contractor ITT Federal Services Corps.

Due to missing or insufficient ITT documentation and accounting errors, our audit questioned costs of $297,892 in nonpersonnel and personnel costs ($176,385 in nonpersonnel costs, $98,880 in personnel costs, and $22,627 in general administrative expenses).

Filed under: Adams and Associates, Connecticut Job Corps, Contractors, Fraud, Improper billing, ITT Federal Service Corps, Job Corps, Job Corps Centers, Labor unions, Mississippi Job Corps, number manipulation, OIG Reports, U.S. Forestry Service, Adams and Associates, Connecticut Job Corps Center, ITT Federal Service Corps, Mississippi Job Corps, National Plastering Industry's Joint Apprenticeship Fund, Office of the Inspector General, US Forest Service

Reader’s Comments July 15, 2010

-from Martin Luther

“Job Corps is a great opportunity. Name one free program that will deliver what a youth desires if they work hard to get it. There is none. Karl Rove is just a chess piece that gets told what to do and who to attack. Rich people like him want the good old days when poor person’s only shot at a decent life was to $ their souls.

By the way, failures of Job Corps whine and complain. And, as for the staff, the only thing that needs to be done is remove the staff who are not doing their jobs. Also, remove the $ stealing government “chess pieces” who are not doing their jobs. Replace them with real American citizens who are there to improve-educate-train impoverished youth who need positive directional motivation.”

-from Nancy

“The Job Corps is a NOTHING LESS THAN A CRIME AGAINST THE AMERICAN PEOPLE AND TAXPAYERS in these economic times.

I have also worked for Job Corps twice, the same one in, NY, thirty years ago when it started, I was the purchasing agent, and recently I went there again to help them set up contracts for their stimulus funding.

Two million dollars that someone might as well take a match to, the way they are spending it. Numbers are massaged in the accounting area, in the procurement area, and in the student success rates area. The actual # of students who improve their lives, or are successful is SO minimal it is NOT worth the almost $30,000 each they spend on each student. And the $30,000 each in tax dollars is a low estimate, much more is probably actually spend. The first administrative manager I worked for 30 years ago, immediately started “writing bogus purchase orders that were phony”, they were for contractor work he said was being done at the center, when it was actually ALL being done at his house. He tried to encourage me to get involved in the scam, saying do you want a new washer and dryer? Well, write up a PO for it, buy it, when it comes to the center tear up the paperwork, and take it home. I would not get involved with it. And as a result he, didn’t want me there. ITT was the contractor. I filed with EEOC/and HR, and was called to a hearing in Syracuse I believe, and ITT actually did offer me some type of settlement, to buy me off from the filing. CAN YOU SAY CROOKED, BOYS AND GIRLS.

Then most recently in a temporary job setting up contracts for ARRA stimulus funding, I SAW NO CHANGES FROM THE SITUATION 30 YEARS AGO. Job Corps has NEVER been a successful program, Yet the government spends billions on it. THE AMERICANS CANNOT AFFORD THIS PROGRAM, AMERICA CANNOT AFFORD THIS PROGRAM.

DISBAND IT NOW, DISBAND IT NOW. AND CLOSE ALL JOB CORPS CENTERS.”

*Note from Job Corps Fraud: thirty years ago Oneonta may have been managed by a contractor called ‘ITT’, today it is managed by Education and Training Resources (ETR), Bowling Green, Kentucky.

Filed under: Contractors, Education and Training Resources (ETR), Fraud, Improper billing, Job Corps, Job Corps Centers, number manipulation, Oneonta Job Corps Center, Reader's Comments, ARRA, bogus work orders, EEOC, ITT, Job Corps, Job Corps crimes, Karl Rove, Martin Luther, Oneonta, taxpayers

Past OIG Audit of Fort Simcoe Job Corps Center reveals unreliable program information

-“We concluded that Job Corps could not rely on financial or program information reported by the Fort Simcoe Job Corps Center (FSJCC).”

Has anything changed since 1998?

From OIG’s audit of Fort Simcoe Job Corps center.  Read about it here:

It should be clear to our regular readers that nothing has changed about the Job Corps’ maneuvering its statistics over the years. OIG’s investigations and negative audits have caused a high level of sophistication in today’s Job Corps Centers manipulating the press with its every positive achievement.  When Job Corps students re-paint a State Police barracks or pour concrete for a sidewalk in front of a small town library, there is much fanfare and celebration and, a press release is sent to newspapers touting the event.  Good deeds are strategically planned so as to get as much newspaper coverage as possible. Other staff and myself were “assigned the task” of ensuring that a positive newspaper article about Shriver Job Corps was published every three months.  These assignments were not voluntary, we had to do them by a certain date. Job Corps has so far, created an artificial image for itself that is no different than a *Potemkin Village or an Emperor without clothing.

*Potemkin Village,  a pretentiously showy or imposing façade intended to mask or divert attention from an embarrassing or shabby fact or condition.

Filed under: Fort Simcoe Job Corps, Improper billing, Job Corps, Job Corps Centers, number manipulation, OIG Reports, Performance, emperor without clothing, Fort Simcoe Job Corps, Job Corps manipulation of data, Job Corps unreliable program, OIG audits, Potemkin village

“Youth Today” Audit Says ResCare Billed Improperly for Treasure Island Job Corps

Read the newest article about the Treasure Island Job Corps Center here:  written by Jamaal Abdul-Alim

Filed under: Improper billing, Job Corps Centers, Treasure Island Job Corps, Youth Today, Jamaal Abdul-Alim, ResCare, ResCare Improper billing, Treasure Island Job Corps, Youth Today