One program aimed at helping youths find summer jobs in Washington D.C. recently cut thousands of positions, and is now being targeted as a massive failure in the city’s payroll system.
Washington D.C. officials recently cut more than 3,200 jobs from the city’s Summer Youth Employment Program, which is expected to save the city about $1.86 million. The people effected by the cuts were either ineligible or absent from their jobs.
The program is for youths ages 14 to 21, and officials reported at least five people on the payroll were older than 50, while others were younger than 14 and some people were being paid twice. These glitches have put the program $31 million in debt.
An investigation of the program was recently conducted by CapStat, according to an article from the District of Columbia. Every agency associated with the administration and development of the program, planning process and execution was investigated.
“It was clear before this report that there was serious mismanagement of this year’s Summer Youth Employment Program,” Mayor Adrian M. Fenty said in the article. “It is important that we understand all of our mistakes so that we can correct them and restore the faith of our residents in our programs.”
The investigation focused on the Department of Employment Services, the Executive Office of the Mayor, the Office of the City Administrator, the Office of Contracting and Procurement and the Office of the Chief Technology Officer, as well as other host organizations.
The investigation found that $17 million of the $37 million budget was used to meet increased demand for the program, and the final budget increase was the result of severe mismanagement of payroll within the program. It also was noted the time entry system was unreliable because of a lack of complete and inaccurate records, creating a significant number of errors.
The investigation further stated management safeguards at all city government levels failed to raise warnings, and the DOES underestimated the depth of the data management problems even after the issues became evident.
