Cut The CRAP - Sprucing Up Mold Ridden Apartments Before They Are Torn Down - $1.5 Million

Bill Smith, Editor: The following is taken from Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) annual “Wastebook” Monday, discussing 100 spending projects that squandered $11.5 billion of public money this year. The following is part of series of articles where that will be run drawing on Coburn's 2010 Wastebook and other sources to identify government funded waste. We are going to call the series Cut the CRAP which represents depending on the situation (Congress' Reckless Addiction to Pork) or (Congress' Reckless Allowance of Piss-Poor-Performance).

Our 1st Report was: Cut The CRAP - Upkeep of Unused VA Monkey House - $175 Million

If you are angry with the waste, leave a comment, but most of all forward the example to your congressional representative and Senators and tell them to "Cut the CRAP." Let your friends know about the waste. And get involved with organizations opposing government fraud, waste, and abuse. However, if you are happy with the pork project, share with us why you believe the government should be taxing others and in-debting our even grandchildren for the project.

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Sprucing Up Apartments Before They Are Torn Down -
(Shreveport, LA) $1.5 Million

The city of Shreveport, Louisiana misspent $1.5 million in stimulus funds on mold remediation for a housing complex it was considering for demolition, according to a federal audit.8

To obtain the stimulus money, the city‘s housing authority promised the federal government it would spend the money on improving a number of low-income homes it managed. Those projects included a mere $100,000 for combating mold and mildew at an apartment complex named Wilkinson Terrace.

More than ten months after awarding the grant to Shreveport, officials from the Department of Housing and Urban Development noticed the city had failed to spend most of the money. Under the rules of the stimulus, the money was to have been spent within one year. The agency reminded Shreveport that the funds needed to be put to work, or they would be rescinded.

In the span of a few weeks, Shreveport officials cut contracts worth over $1.5 million for mold remediation at Wilkinson Terrace – fifteen times what they told the feds they would spend, and much more than a site facing possible demolition likely deserved. As the HUD Inspector General noted in an audit of the troubled grant, ― if the Authority‘s ultimate plan was to demolish the Wilkinson Terrace site in the next few years, the prudency of its decision. . . should be further questioned.

What‘s more, when the IG‘s investigators examined Wilkinson Terrace, it found the contractors had failed to do the work properly. ― [T]he inspected units had what appeared to be pest excrement caked on surfaces that were to have been cleaned and disinfected, the IG wrote.The audit concluded that Shreveport should return over $1.1 million in misspent federal funds. The city disputes the IG‘s findings.

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