Posted on 10/19/2010 12:12:17 PM PDT by reaganaut1
Money provided in the stimulus bill for making buildings more energy-efficient is finally starting to flow, the Department of Energy’s inspector general says. But in a report released Tuesday, his office says that in some cases it has been badly spent.
An audit by the inspector general focused on some work done by the Community and Economic Development Association of Cook County, one of 35 agencies in Illinois that are expected to share $91 million over three years. The audit looked at 15 homes and found that 12 failed final inspection “because of substandard workmanship.” In some cases, technicians who tuned up gas-fired heating systems did so improperly, so that they emitted carbon monoxide “at higher than acceptable levels.”
In eight cases, initial assessments of the houses and apartments called for “inappropriate weatherization measures.” In one case an inspector called for more attic insulation but ignored leaks in the roof, which would have ruined the insulation, the audit said. And for 10 homes, “contractors billed for labor charges that had not been incurred and for materials that had not been installed.’’ The stimulus bill, approved early last year, devoted $5 billion to weatherization. Illinois was allotted $242 million to spend over three years and planned to weatherize 27,000 homes. The group audited, known as CEDA, is supposed to spend $91 million on weatherizing 12,500 of those homes.
The federal audit said that Illinois had found a 62 percent error rate when it re-inspected homes weatherized by CEDA. And sometimes CEDA was spending more for materials than an individual homeowner would spend, the audit found. Some of the work created fire hazards, the audit said.
Phone calls to CEDA’s s president and its director of weatherization were not immediately returned on Tuesday.
(Excerpt) Read more at green.blogs.nytimes.com ...
When people are spending their OWN money on home renovation, not Uncle Sam's, they will pay more attention to the quality of the work. The reigning idiot thinks he knows how best to spend our money.
$2 million weatherization dollars in Texas went to something like 20 houses. Um, right. Where is the money really going?
“The federal audit said that Illinois had found a 62 percent error rate when it re-inspected homes weatherized by CEDA.”
If I had that kind of failure rate in one year my license would be up for review then suspended. Period!
The Chicago Way. Only now it’s being imposed on us all over the country.
“Community and Economic Development Association of Cook County”
Is this one ACORNs new names? Who knew they didn’t know how to install a window? Wow, I learn something everyday.
62 percent error rate - “close enough for gubbamint work”!
From what I’ve read, the program appears to have been a scam pretty much everywhere. I know of a few families here in Michigan who should have been eligible but weren’t.
ABOUT CEDA
One of the largest private non-profit organizations in the country, CEDA serves more than 200,000 Cook County residents annually. Over thirty programs and services are offered in the areas of child and family development, health and nutrition services, senior citizen programs, economic development, employment and job training, housing services, education services and community development.
We are constantly improving and expanding our services to further aid our mission of assisting individuals, families and communities. CEDA has over 625 full and part-time employees, and nearly 4,500 volunteers, dedicated to helping Chicago area residents attain economic self-sufficiency and improve their quality of life.
The program here in Delaware was pretty much a scam with overcharging contractors, lax state oversight and shoddy end results. It stunk so bad they stopped it for a ‘review’ of the procedures. Another example of spending other people’s money recklessly.
Don’t give them ideas. Plumbing will be next.
I’ve decided if I ever sell a house it will be a shell with credits for upgrades!
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