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Stymied Stimulus

States are unable to investigate fraudulent federal stimulus spending due to layoffs in auditor and legal offices caused by the recession.
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“When the U.S. Congress passed the massive stimulus package earlier this year, California Governor Arnold Swarzenegger created a state-level inspector general to insure that the stimulus funds for California would not be used wastefully or improperly. This is a big job for any auditor, because California is receiving about $50 billion dollars in stimulus funds. California is simply the ‘big fish’ in this troubled area. New Hampshire Deputy State Attorney General Orville Fitch was tagged as heard of the Office of Economic Stimulus with a budget of $1.5 Million and three people on staff. That office, however, is scheduled to close in September 2011, and it is unclear what will happen to pending audits, investigations, complaints, and reports. Nearly every state of the union faces the same sort of problem.”

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