It appears that "an audit of the state's spending of nearly $600 million in federal anti-terrorism funds found that some of the money was spent improperly, including to buy a trailer that was used to haul lawn mowers to "lawn mower drag races.'' The NY Times reports:
The state auditor's office pointed out several cases in which poor monitoring by the Texas Engineering Extension Service may have allowed abuse.
One county bought 18 radios and other communication equipment from a company owned by one of its county commissioners, according to the report released Thursday. Another jurisdiction used a trailer ostensibly bought as emergency equipment to haul lawn mowers to races, the report says.
State auditors have forwarded the case to their special investigation unit, which handles fraud, abuse and other criminal allegations.
Of course, the Engineering Extension Service isn't especially worried:
The extension service said it agreed with many of the auditor's recommendations but that overall it had done an excellent job overseeing grants. It has begun requiring some grant recipients to report how they use equipment.
Just "some" grant recipients. Do you feel safer yet?
Posted by sarah at January 10, 2005 8:46 AM | TrackBack