[il-talk] Illinois misspent money at ICRI.

[Bill Reif]

The below story is in today's Springfield State Journal-Register. It's 
great to see state auditors doing their jobs, to a point. Unfortunately, 
they are likely to miss the programmatic waste that, while properly 
documented, doesn't show how some people are essentially warehoused 
rather than made ready for employment.

Cordially,
Bill

Illinois misspent money on program to help disabled
By JOHN O'CONNOR
The Associated Press
Posted Nov 23, 2011 @ 09:00 PM
Last update Nov 23, 2011 @ 09:56 PM

State investigators have found that as much as $100,000 in taxpayer 
money for a program
to help disabled people get schooling or jobs was misspent on such 
expenses as a
funeral, lawyer's fees and bedding.
Two employees have been suspended as a result.
The Illinois Department of Human Services said Wednesday the workers 
received 20-day
unpaid suspensions after
a state report this week revealed that the pair and a former employee 
did not follow state rules
on what client expenses are covered by the Illinois Center for 
Rehabilitation and
Education in Chicago. The program helps disabled people pursue schooling 
or vocational
training and pays for items they need, such as work uniforms.
The report did not indicate how $100,000 was misspent on 76 people — an 
average of
$1,300 each — or during what time period. It provided examples of the 
inappropriate
expenditures for only six of those clients. An aide to the Office of the 
Executive
Inspector General, which compiled the report, declined further comment.
An internal DHS audit in late 2009 found misspent money or undocumented 
expenditures
in each of the 76 cases handled by Pamela Clay-Wilson, Madesa Dickerson 
and Dawn
Laga. The auditor said "that she has never witnessed abuse of this 
magnitude (and)
estimated that the improper expenditures totaled $100,000," according to 
the Inspector
General's report.
Payments included $500 to bury a client's son; $200 for a client to meet 
with an
attorney to discuss a child custody case; $400 for clothing despite a 
$200 limit
on such purchases; $694 for two sets of mattresses; and $600 for 
orthopedic shoes
for a client who didn't need them.
More than $32 million was available to support 44,000 clients in the 
program statewide
in the 2010 fiscal year, Human Services spokeswoman Januari Smith said.
Clay-Wilson and Laga were suspended and received additional training on 
state rules,
while Dickerson left her job in November 2010, according to Smith and 
state records.
Dickerson approved the expenses, Clay-Wilson reviewed them without 
correction, and
Laga processed the paperwork, according to the report.
Dickerson told authorities in an August 2010 interview that Clay-Wilson 
wanted to
better advertise the program's services and recruited clients, many of 
whom had greater
needs than traditionally was the case. The mattresses, for example, went 
to a client
and her children who were sleeping on a floor. She said most of her 
clients were
homeless.
In a response to the report, Clay-Wilson said she was trying to open the 
program
to more disabled minorities who enter it "more dependent on services 
from social
services agencies than white customers."
"This office only tried to provide the services necessary for the 
customers to become
successfully employed," she wrote in the response. "The error was in 
failure to document
the reason many of the services issued were necessary."
Clay-Wilson, who according to other state records makes $81,900 a year, 
is out of
the office this week. She did not immediately return a message and did 
not answer
a home phone.
Laga, who makes $49,000, referred questions to Clay-Wilson, saying, "I 
follow the
rules." She told investigators she questioned some spending, but 
Clay-Wilson told
her to complete the paperwork, an assertion Clay-Wilson denied.
State records indicate Dickerson, who earned $74,900, left her position 
in November
2010. She did not return a message left at a number listed at her address.