Audit Details Mismanagement Of Anti-Violence Program Launched Under Former Gov. Quinn
(CBS) -- Former Governor Pat Quinn launched an anti-violence program years ago with taxpayer dollars. Now an audit finds there's questions about millions of state tax dollars.
CBS 2's Marissa Bailey follows the money.
What happened to 78 million state tax dollars? A scathing new 178 page state audit slams a program administered by former Governor Pat Quinn.
He always defended the program against critics who alleged it was an election year stunt to drive black voters to his side.
"It was public money," said Quinn in May of 2014. "It was a program that was designed to protect the public's safety in violence-plagued neighborhoods and to provide jobs for young people, mentoring."
Today, the audit shows rules were broken and money was mismanaged.
"Programs were put on in the different communities but they were in some cases very poorly tracked and monitored," said Illinois Auditor General Frank Mautino.
That's just the beginning. One of the first findings: "The agency went outside it's normal process and allowed a governor's office employee to select the communities, providers and funding levels."
The audit also claims "Agencies failed to timely submit quarterly fiscal reports…violated its policy by not completing site visits" and instead "Relied on self-reported figures from the service providers."
Then there's the more than $1.1 million in "questionable spending."
"It was poorly monitored, poorly implemented and poorly planned and so you really can't get a full effect of what impact the spending of those dollars had," Mautino said.
In a statement today, Quinn pointed the finger saying in part, "By law (the agency) was put in charge of administering anti-violence grants."
John Maki, the new head of the agency at the center of the report says Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority broke its own rules in administering the grants.
"From a state perspective, we don't know what we got and we don't know what we got because we weren't asking the right questions and you know shame on us for doing that," Maki said.
The U.S. attorney's office has already launched an investigation to see if any crimes were committed.
