Excerpt from Times Union.com: (click for entire article)
How well can New York account for the billions of dollars in education stimulus funding coming to the state from Washington, D.C.?
Not very, according to a recent audit by the federal Department of Education's Inspector General, which turned up holes and shortfalls in the way the state Education Department had been set up to police the influx of money. Unless they're corrected, the gaps in New York's oversight system could open the door to "unallowed, unsupported, or fraudulent expenditures" of stimulus dollars, according to federal inspectors.
State officials, however, say the Inspector General's audit of "internal control" systems was completed before stimulus dollars were handed out, and that they've already moved to beef up their oversight.
"It's history," Education Department spokesman Tom Dunn said of the audit findings.
Either way, the audit -- which was quietly released late last year -- highlights the difficulty that New York and other states face in making sure that stimulus money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 isn't wasted.
The state Education Department "had made insufficient progress in establishing controls to ensure compliance with ARRA reporting requirements," concluded part of the audit, which was conducted during the summer by Regional Inspector General for Audit Daniel Schultz.
In addition to paying for brick-and-mortar projects such as road repaving, the stimulus plan is dispensing billions for education nationwide.
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