[il-talk] Illinois misspent money at ICRI.

Thu Nov 24 19:34:36 UTC 2011

Did these employees, pulling down significant salaries of $81,000 or 
$74,000, provide sufficient service to make customers "job ready," as 
Department of Human Services officials so proudly proclaim?  If the primary 
purpose of rehabilitation is to get people employed, then we should ask a 
question in the nature of cost/benefit analysis, given the terrible fiscal 
condition of this state.  How many customers, if any, did these officials 
assist to find "substantial gainful employment" (SGA), quoting Federal 
Social Security language?  Did any customers, either directly or indirectly 
under the jurisdiction of these officials, get real jobs and pay taxes back 
to the state which ostensibly assisted them through the Office of 
Rehabilitation, under the Department of Human Services?

You may recall how Betty Odam Davis evaded the question I asked at our state 
convention.  When I summarized the sorts of travel scenarios her 
predecessors taught me back in 1964, she areplied by talking about how she 
generally uses cabs because she now is a senior citizen.

If these examples are microcosms of the kind and quality of services this 
state provides in its rehabilitation programs and elsewhere, no wonder we 
have such a wreched and deplorable fiscal position.

Cordially,

Steve Hastalis

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Bill Reif" <billreif at ameritech.net>
To: <il-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Thursday, November 24, 2011 9:09 AM
Subject: [il-talk] Illinois misspent money at ICRI.

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.

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