Last month, www.recovery.gov listed 28 congressional districts in Ohio as having received stimulus money. After much media scrutiny the most recent state/territory summary for Ohio lists the correct number of congressional districts in Ohio, 18, and a category named “unassigned congressional district.” While the phantom districts have “disappeared,” and are now lumped into a single category, www.recovery.gov lists the money as having been awarded and in some cases creating or retaining jobs.

Ohio Watchdog found a total of 29 stimulus projects located in phantom districts in Ohio. 27 of those projects were located by sorting through three downloadable databases on the federal website. Two other projects were found by viewing all recipients listed on www.recovery.gov. Both awards were listed as being located in the 90th congressional district in Ohio; Ohio Legal Rights Service received one and Center of Vocational Alternatives for Mental Health received the other. Specific information for those projects can be found by following the links above; the other 27 projects identified are listed below.

Phantom Districts

Seven of the 29 projects are listed as contracts and 22 are listed as grants. All of the award recipients are listed as being located in Ohio, but, seven of the projects list California as the “Prime recipient: Primary Place of Performance.” All seven of those are contracts awarded to Midwest Environmental Control, Inc. The company has an office in Toledo, Ohio, where according to www.recovery.gov the contract has been awarded for projects at Edwards Air Force Base and Vandenberg Air Force Base both located in California. A company spokeswoman would not answer questions relating to the contracts over the phone and asked that a letter with any questions be sent in the mail. Midwest Environmental Control “>This letter was sent on November 23, 2009; so far, no response has been received.

A top official at the Ohio Office of the Inspector General, who asked to not be named, said, “investigating money given directly to companies, cities, counties, or non-profits in Ohio from the federal government or a federal agency is beyond our jurisdiction.”

The top official explained that the Ohio Inspector General is only responsible for investigating, locating, and monitoring money coming from the federal government or federal agencies and given directly to the State of Ohio or a State of Ohio agency, “like the Ohio Department of Transportation, Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, or the Ohio Department of Health.”

According to the top official at the Ohio OIG, not all American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) money will pass through the the State of Ohio or a State of Ohio agency the office would have jurisdiction over. This seems to apply to most of the money awarded to organizations in the phantom congressional districts.

“The money went straight from the federal government or federal agency to cities/counties/agencies in Ohio. We don’t receive data or scrubbed data. We have access to the it on a website just like everyone else. We’re not responsible for scrubbing that data and making sure it is correct.”

The top official at the Ohio OIG compared their responsibility when it comes to ARRA funds as being the same as any other investigation. The office “cannot look into it without jurisdiction, this is the same with the ARRA money,” the official said.

If it was within the Ohio OIG’s jurisdiction the official said seeing money allocated to fake congressional districts “would probably raise a red a flag but more of just an inquiry. Not sure if it would rise to the level of fraud, waste, or abuse; we would have to have something further: theft or a deliberate attempt to mislead.” While the office cannot discuss pending investigations, the official did give examples of past investigations.

If the Ohio OIG is not responsible for looking into ARRA projects funded directly by the federal government to local entities, then who is? The top official explained that the responsibility falls onto the federal government or the federal agency responsible for distributing the grant, loan, or contract.

In the case of the $300,000 grant that according to www.recovery.gov was “agency reported” to them by the Social Security Administration, SSA; none of the parties involved are on the same page as to where the grant money came from.

After several calls to the Ohio Legal Rights Service Ohio Watchdog was informed that the organization did not receive any stimulus money. After a visit to the office, located in Columbus, Ohio, Ohio Watchdog was told that further questions regarding this grant would have to be addressed to their legal department.

After leaving voice messages with their legal department a response was received from Tim Tobin, the Policy Director at Ohio Legal Rights Service, OLRS. Tobin said, “you had asked whether or not OLRS received any federal stimulus funds and we did not. There possibly could have been maybe some things we might have tried to compete for, or apply for, but we were not eligible for anything directly.” But, according to www.recovery.org, they did receive ARRA money and it was awarded by the SSA.

To figure out whether or not OLRS received stimulus money Ohio Watchdog called the Ohio OIG. Through a voicemail, the Ohio OIG confirmed that yes, OLRS did receive $300,000, but at that time the office was not exactly sure if it was stimulus or not. Ohio Watchdog was told the Ohio OIG was investigating the issue further.

After speaking with someone in the Ohio OIG office, the same official who asked to not be named explained how the ARRA money in Ohio is being accounted for and offered insight into the $300,000 grant awarded to OLRS.

The Ohio OIG official said, “Tim Tobin was confused by the question of ‘Did you receive stimulus funds?’ That is why he answered that OLRS did not.” The official went on to explain that the program OLRS received funds for was a five year program that was going to be phased out if more funding was not received. But, with the $300,000 grant OLRS received from the SSA the program was extended.

“They don’t know if ARRA money is funding the program or not. For five years it has been running on non-ARRA funds. As long as the program is running they didn’t ask any questions,” the Ohio OIG official said.

So, who does know the answer? “Since the SSA filed the report they’re responsible to tell us,” the Ohio OIG official said. After a call to the SSA, the agency requested the questions regarding this grant be put in an MX-3501N_20091202_161158 “>e-mail.

The MX-3501N_20091202_161228 “>response from Mark Hinkle from the SSA Press Office explains that the $300,000 grant awarded to OLRS was not funded under the Recovery Act. It “is a normal grant provided under the Ticket to Work and Work Incentives Improvement Act,” Hinkle said. The project is being overseen by a “grants manager and a project manager.”

According to Hinkle, “Social Security has not awarded any grants using Recovery Act money. Money spent for contracts and paying the Economic Recovery One-time Payments of $250 is reported on the Agency’s Recovery web site.” The response from Hinkle resulted in another sent MX-3501N_20091202_161322 “>e-mail in which no response has been received.

According to the SSA they did not fund the OLRS project with stimulus money. The OLRS is not sure where the money came from they just know that they received funding for the program. The Ohio OIG does not have jurisdiction to monitor this particular grant. And www.recovery.gov lists the program and the $300,000 grant as being funded with ARRA money and reported to them by the SSA.

Calls to both OLRS and the Ohio OIG went unanswered today.