Warnings: Stimulus money could swamp agencies
WASHINGTON -- Community groups and agencies could be overwhelmed as they receive millions of dollars from a $5 billion stimulus program to make low-income households more energy efficient, some state officials and members of Congress warn. Some of the groups have been faulted in the past for mismanaging thousands of dollars a year in federal aid.
Those officials are worried about the massive increase for a program whose annual budget was $227 million last year. Auditors in five states have reported management and oversight problems in the past four years with weatherization programs, which provide energy-efficient heating or cooling systems and other improvements to lower utility bills.
The Energy Department provides weatherization money to states, which then distribute it to local governments and non-profit social service agencies that screen applicants and hire contractors to perform the work. It seeks to prevent problems by requiring states to file detailed spending plans and holding back half of the funding until recipients show they're properly using the money, according to Gil Sperling, the head of the program.
"We wanted to make sure that if there were problems, we were holding onto some of their money, which would be a greater incentive for (states) to fix those problems," Sperling said.
Auditors in Louisiana, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri and Pennsylvania have found problems with their states' oversight of weatherization programs. In Pennsylvania, for example, state investigators found in 2007 that many weatherization projects were never inspected, and a failure to coordinate activities of two agencies in Philadelphia wasted $94,000 by weatherizing the same homes twice.
Pennsylvania Auditor General Jack Wagner said he supports the program but worries his state will have problems managing the $253 million in stimulus money. "Contracts will go out quicker, and they will be bigger," he said. "You have to ratchet up your eligibility checks and monitoring of work being done."
