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By Michael Bielawski
The state auditor’s office reports that public funds used for grant programs may not have received proper scrutiny beyond the word of the applicants.
The Vermont State Auditor (SOA) commented on the Department of Economic Development’s (DED) oversight – or alleged lack thereof – of money distributed via the Capital Investment Program (CIP) and the Community Recovery and Revitalization Program (CRRP).
“DED largely relied on awardees’ assertions about need for the grants rather than design processes to corroborate funding gaps via a thorough review of each applicant’s financial position and inquiry about alternate means of funding the projects such as bank loans,” the SOA’s final report states.
The Legislature set $50,580,000 aside for the two grant programs and they authorized the DED to design them.
The DED has responded to the SOA report, it can be read in this SOA letter.
The SOA report suggests that funds may have been distributed where it was not truly needed.
“The Legislature’s Economist pointed out that to ensure that these grants of government funds truly make a difference, there must be evidence that the projects would not occur without the grants,” it states. “Spending public funds for private projects that would occur without them is unnecessary and wasteful.”
The report claims that at least three applicants outright indicated that their programs would still happen without state funds.
“By ignoring evidence that awards weren’t necessary, and failing to thoroughly review applicants’ financial position, DED awarded funding for projects that could have been completed without an award,” it states.
Another section notes a lack of documentation regarding the applicant vetting process.
“DED made awards that were within statutory limits; however, DED did not clearly document how the amounts awarded were related to information presented in the CIP applications, the numerical scores calculated under the CRRP program, and the factors required to be considered in the award decision.”
It concludes, “Given the flaws we noted, DED undermined its ability to be an effective steward of the CIP and CRRP program resources and increased the risk that the Legislature’s desired results for these programs will not be achieved.”
Department of Economic Development responds
The DED responded to the allegations by the SOA. some of it can be read here. It states, “DED finds that the [SOA] report omits important facts regarding the Federal and State intention for these programs, which was to efficiently distribute COVID recovery funds to prevent business closures and job losses while fostering long-term growth and sustainability for impacted entities.”
They argue that due diligence was followed.
“When determining award amounts, DED considered several factors like geographic diversity, size of project, amount of need, and other intricacies that are not easily captured by a purely numerical approach. DED capped most CIP awards at the lesser of $500,000 or the applicant’s Net Fiscal Impact (NFI) to the State. The intention was to distribute funds more broadly, despite a statutory cap of $1.5 million per project.”
SOA noted the absence of a “state fiscal impact” (NFI) analysis for the initiatives. DED notes that this requirement was removed by lawmakers.
“The NFI requirement was ultimately removed by the Legislature in statute for CRRP. It did not accurately reflect the benefits of essential projects like childcare and affordable housing. While the SAO criticized this decision, the NFI model was inadequate for assessing true social impact and economic recovery goals,” they wrote.
The author is a writer for the Vermont Daily Chronicle
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Categories: State Government
Apparently the same criteria was used for doling out covid relief that has been used for giving out long-term stays in motel rooms…the honor system. That’s ok, it’s only taxpayers money, and when that runs low, then there are the federal currency printing presses. Thank goodness that Montpelier does not have the capability to print currency…at least not the paper kind.
They audited with a microscope the PEOPLE getting UEI during the plandemic, with predjudice I might add, looking for ‘cheaters’… its not THE PEOPLE who cheat…but then again, only the narrative that fits the Hegelian dilemna problem:solution is the bias they seek…
OH… and btw… that GRAPHIC representation of a ‘virus’ is NOT a virus. Viruses have never been isolated so we don’t know what they look like: that’s just a graphic designers imagination coming up with a symbol everyone will mindsnap into programming themselves… actually exists. RESEARCH: Louis Pasteur and Antoine Bauchamp (RJF JR mentions this fact in his THE REAL FAUCI book, and Christine Massey exposed this little misleading bit of info i.e. viruses never have existed, back in 2020, which again, I covered in an interview with Dr. Robert Young, and was the interview that got me banned from YT that year).
This is how they get you hooked people…there is no such thing as free money.
All absolutely true. What they call “viruses” are apparently the “remnants” of what our immune does to cellular invaders. Think of it like this: You put a piece of paper into a crosscut paper shredder. What comes out is little pieces. Those little pieces of our immune system “shredder” are what they’re calling “viruses”.
RFK Jr’s book, The Real Anthony Fauci is indeed a great read and will open your eyes. If they were open already, they’ll be open wider by the time you finish the book.
Another source I would recommend is Jon Rappaport’s blog. He has been presenting evidence that “viruses” don’t exist for years now. I know my initial reaction to his writing was “Wait, What?!?”, but read his stuff and judge for yourself. He convinced me. Rappaport has been on Fauci like a fly on manure since the AIDS days. And yes, Anthony Faustus was involved in that too.
This is how they deal with all grant money…..it’s free!
Pass it out to friends and those whom you want to keep voting for you. FREE MONEY!
But let us not forget, the entire covid pandemic was a scam to begin with.
Suddenly across the entire world for 2 years in a row, the flu suddenly vanished! Like it’s never happened before or since, since the beginning of time.
Nothing to see here, you Pfizer check will be coming shortly, thank you for complying.
Nothing to see here. Hoffer is against any and all economic development initiatives.
Would like to see him expose all the waste and fraud in our welfare programs but that will never happen
It is outrageous that the typical “state fiscal impact” analysis of these grants was ‘…removed by lawmakers’ …even while the CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF VERMONT dictates in Article 9 “…that previous to any law being made to raise a tax, the purpose for which it is to be raised ought to appear evident to the Legislature to be of more service to community than the money would be if not collected.”
While these $50 Million plus grant programs are likely to be wasteful and unnecessary, the first problem is that our legislators aren’t following their own rules and can’t/won’t make any assurances that the grant money will actually be “of more service to community than the money would be if not collected.”
But the second, and arguably most egregious problem is that when voters don’t understand this legislative malevolence, they can’t, or won’t, do anything about it – because…‘it’s difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it.’ – – Upton Sinclair
Grifters gotta grift! All that money printed and doled out to friends, associates and donors. Now, we have a devalued currency with inflation and delinquency rates off the charts. So, they get caught stealing, yet again, no one held to account, no clawing back what was stolen, no one is fired, no one will lose a dime of funding going forward. Thievery and fraud is perfectly okay as long as it is done under an “official capacity or designated authority.” No one is going to do a thing about it and no one will be prosecuted. Even the mafia is in awe of their authoritative racketeering.