The D.C. government has cut a couple thousand more youths from the summer jobs program ahead of the fifth pay period, reducing enrollment to fewer than 16,500 but still pushing the budget to the limit.
At the end of the week 16,480 individuals between the ages of 14 and 21 will be paid for their participation in the troubled Summer Youth Employment Program, said Mayor Adrian Fenty Tuesday. That is roughly 1,800 fewer than two weeks ago, reducing payroll by about $700,000.
The vast majority, more than 14,000, will receive full pay whether or not they worked the hours, and the rest half pay.
The current figure, Fenty said, “is as real a number as humanly possible.”
The total payroll for the fifth pay period will approach $6 million, Fenty aides said. Spending more than $6 million would put the program on pace to overshoot its current budget, which tops $50 million and includes $30 million taken from the city’s emergency reserves, government sources said.
There is a sixth and final payday on Sept. 12.
The summer jobs catastrophe forced the resignation of Summer Spencer, director of the Department of Employment Services. Her agency was unprepared for and overwhelmed by the program’s popularity, an internal audit found. Those problems were compounded by a failed time and attendance system.
Thousands of people were paid to do nothing, or overpaid for hours they didn’t work. Hundreds more were ineligible but allowed to sign up anyway, including non-D.C. residents and individuals outside of the age restrictions. D.C. dispensed $3.4 million for the first pay period, $6.46 million for the second, $7.3 million for the third and $6.1 million for the fourth.
Nearly 5,000 youth have been cut from the jobs program in the last month. The D.C. Inspector General is expected to investigate cases of possible fraud and abuse.
Roughly 1,700 people showed up at DOES headquarters after the last payday to complain that they hadn’t been paid, said Tene Dolphin, incoming interim director of the employment services department. Some 200 previously purged youth raised legitimate arguments and were returned to the payroll, Dolphin said.
But the vast majority simply turned around and left.
“We had a substantial MPD presence,” Dolphin said. “We have surveillance.”
