You couldn’t make this story up. Costs for the District’s summer jobs program have ballooned to $50 million — more than $30 million over budget. Some kids have been paid for work they never did, while others haven’t been paid for work they actually did.
“This has been an expensive debacle,” said Carol Schwartz (R-At Large), chairman of the committee that oversees the program. “Maybe if they hadn’t paid people that hadn’t worked, they wouldn’t need so much additional money.”
Schwartz and Marion Barry (D-Ward) asked the D.C. inspector general late last month to audit the program, and Schwartz will conduct emergency oversight hearings in September.
It’s a classic example of government inefficiency and waste. Of course it doesn’t only happen in D.C. There’s plenty of it in the Triangle.
