Funds to help victims of rape were misspent (from federal stimulus grants)

[alp227]

Source: San Francisco Chronicle

(11-25) 04:00 PST Sacramento - --

Hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal stimulus grants for victims of rape and sexual assault were misspent or squandered, and the state agency responsible for the funds knew about the problems but did little to fix them, the state inspector general found.

Laura Chick, the inspector general overseeing spending of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds in California, said that a spot check of two agencies that received a portion of $13 million in federal grants to help victims of sexual assault revealed the problems and said ultimate responsibility lies with the California Emergency Management Agency, which doled out the money.

When the groups that received the grants reported to the agency that they had not made progress, the response in one instance was simply to strike out a requirement included as part of the grant, Chick said.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/11/25/BAUE1GH6NJ.DTL

[MadMaddie]

1. So my first question is why would

the California Emergency Management Agency be distributing the money?

Why not agencies that actual help rape victims?

WTF? Where is the common sense?

[DesertDiamond]

2. OMG! Good point!

[boppers]

3. Because CEMA is supposed to train first responders, such as those responding to rape calls.

"The audit looked at two entities that received federal dollars: the California Coalition Against Sexual Assault, headquartered in Sacramento, and the Yolo County Probation Department. The coalition received a $300,000 grant, and the probation department received nearly $260,000.

Chick said the coalition has not met three of the four objectives outlined in the 15-month grant that ends in December, including holding training sessions for the staff of rape crisis centers throughout the state and revising publications and training manuals. Additionally, Chick found the coalition misspent more than $48,000 on expenses such as office rent and supplies that are not allowed under the grant."
....
"The audit found that in Yolo County, the grant that was intended to be spent contacting 300 victims with information about their attackers had resulted in only about a third of those victims being reached. The county agency did not dispute the finding."

These are agencies that help rape victims, but the money is being distributed by a parent agency to them, and fingers are being pointed.