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| Inflated Stimulus numbers: 'Directive' from WHOM??? |
| 2010-02-19 |
| Augusta authority admits "inflating" stimulus job creation number AUGUSTA---Augusta is one of several cities being spotlighted for having agencies that reported bogus stimulus jobs. Augusta's Head Start program got more than $700,000 in stimulus funds. News 12 was there as old windows came out and new windows went in at some of Augusta's Head Start schools. "Oh," grunted Chris Whitely about the application process. "It has just wore me out." Chris Whitley is fiscal officer for the Central Savannah River Area Economic Opportunity Authority. The authority oversees the Head Start program. Chris spoke with News 12 about the formula he used to justify the number of jobs created. "And in my case it would be .03 people," said Chris. So Chris tuned to Washington for answers. "He was just as dumbfounded as I was," said Chris of the person who answered his call. "Then he came back and said, 'Put 317 jobs down. That will be the jobs retained.'" "But how many jobs did you create?" we asked Gloria Lewis, director of the CSRA Economic Opportunity Authority. "We actually hired one new person," Gloria said. "We reported 317 because that was the directive that we got." DIRECTIVE??? Directive from WHOM??? Who is going to press for these answers? I reluctantly accede to the fact that we may never know, given the pathetic state of journalism in this country and, worse, the sad state of the opposition party, unfortunately being held back by its racially-appointed 'leader' "I'm not going to blame anybody," said Chris. "I will say I eventually put the 317 down. I will say I should have put zero." According to a letter from the Department of Health and Human Services, the grant money was never meant to create jobs. The money would provide a COLA, or one-time pay raise for--get this--all 317 employees. It would also provide quality improvement funding for work like replacing school windows. So what happened? "It was inflating jobs created that should not have been done," said Chris. "I guess now in hindsight after all this I would [have] put a big fat 0 in there and just moved on." The office suggests they will have an opportunity to revise the numbers. Chris say it will never happen again. |
| Posted by:logi_cal |
| #5 Not a surprise. Have come to expect a pack of lies and Alice in Wonderland distortions coming out of Washington. What is surprising is they admit cooking the books. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2010-02-19 17:19 |
| #4 You guys are missing my point, and the only 'surprise' of this article: This liberal admits there was a 'directive' to misrepresent the numbers. If 'we' don't ask the hard questions, who the hell will? (certainly not the 'media'...) |
| Posted by: logi_cal 2010-02-19 16:05 |
| #3 Why does this surprise anyone? It was common knowledge that the Commerce Department was cooking the GDP and employment numbers under Clinton to create the impression of a "recovery"...just like the employment numbers from Obambi's Commerce Department. These morons are shameful and the straight faced reporting of these rectal extrapilations by the media is even more disgusting... |
| Posted by: Karl Rove 2010-02-19 15:50 |
| #2 |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2010-02-19 13:56 |
| #1 The office suggests they will have an opportunity to revise the numbers. Chris say it will never happen again. They'll surely figure out new ways to monkey with their reported numbers, just like the federal government has monkeyed with its CPI (inflation) and unemployment reports, which have been scarcely believable for years now. |
| Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 2010-02-19 09:59 |