Local
D.C. summer jobs payroll hits $31M
By: Michael Neibauer
Examiner Staff Writer
September 18, 2008
Final paychecks issued last week for D.C.’s summer youth jobs program brought the total salaries doled out during over 12 weeks to more than $31 million, nearly twice the original budget for the entire employment initiative.
Mayor Adrian Fenty’s Summer Youth Employment Program wrapped up Sept. 12 after months of heavy fire from critics for cost overruns and mismanagement.
Total payout for the summer, in salary alone, was $31.14 million, according to figures provided by the Office of the Chief Financial Officer.
Contracts with vendors cost at least another $10 million.
The program, initially budgeted for $14.5 million and 15,000 participants, ended up serving nearly 20,000 and costing roughly $50 million.
Gross mismanagement and a failed time and attendance system, compounded by soaring participation, combined to spawn a costly debacle, according to government analysts. T
he initiative will be the subject of a hearing today before the D.C. Council’s government operations committee, chaired by Councilwoman Carol Schwartz.
City Administrator Dan Tangherlini and Inspector General Charles Willoughby are among the 35 witnesses scheduled to testify.
“I think the program is very well-intentioned and an important program, but obviously it has to be done right or else it’s just too costly and nonproductive,” Schwartz said Wednesday.
During the course of the summer, thousands of people were paid to do nothing or were overpaid for hours they didn’t work.
Hundreds more were ineligible but were allowed to sign up anyway.
Fenty lifted $21 million from the city’s rainy day fund just to meet payroll demands.
An internal audit of the program, issued in August, concluded that the Department of Employment Services was caught flatfooted by skyrocketing participation, that it finalized vendor contracts very late and failed to test the new attendance software — while Fenty’s chief aides failed to spot the impending disarray.
Fenty forced the resignation of Summer Spencer, DOES director.
Salaries soared when the Fenty administration agreed to pay most participants for the maximum allowable hours, rather than the hours they actually worked.
Mayor Adrian Fenty’s Summer Youth Employment Program wrapped up Sept. 12 after months of heavy fire from critics for cost overruns and mismanagement.
Total payout for the summer, in salary alone, was $31.14 million, according to figures provided by the Office of the Chief Financial Officer.
Contracts with vendors cost at least another $10 million.
The program, initially budgeted for $14.5 million and 15,000 participants, ended up serving nearly 20,000 and costing roughly $50 million.
Gross mismanagement and a failed time and attendance system, compounded by soaring participation, combined to spawn a costly debacle, according to government analysts. T
he initiative will be the subject of a hearing today before the D.C. Council’s government operations committee, chaired by Councilwoman Carol Schwartz.
City Administrator Dan Tangherlini and Inspector General Charles Willoughby are among the 35 witnesses scheduled to testify.
“I think the program is very well-intentioned and an important program, but obviously it has to be done right or else it’s just too costly and nonproductive,” Schwartz said Wednesday.
During the course of the summer, thousands of people were paid to do nothing or were overpaid for hours they didn’t work.
Hundreds more were ineligible but were allowed to sign up anyway.
Fenty lifted $21 million from the city’s rainy day fund just to meet payroll demands.
An internal audit of the program, issued in August, concluded that the Department of Employment Services was caught flatfooted by skyrocketing participation, that it finalized vendor contracts very late and failed to test the new attendance software — while Fenty’s chief aides failed to spot the impending disarray.
Fenty forced the resignation of Summer Spencer, DOES director.
Salaries soared when the Fenty administration agreed to pay most participants for the maximum allowable hours, rather than the hours they actually worked.
