Fiscal Control

After reading hundreds of stories like this over the years out of Detroit, Flint, etc .... does it make sense now?  Why corrupt locals sometimes can't manage taxpayer money and need oversight?  Certainly at the state level, too, because DHS in Michigan has been a welfare giveaway with their rotten Bridge Card Program (college campuses, etc).

Money to help poor people buys furniture for Detroit department //  but hey, the poverty pimps can feel better about themselves controlling their poverty fiefdom from nice chairs ...... rm

DETROIT FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

A contract in question

What happened: The Detroit Human Services Department issued a no-bid contract to the nonprofit Clark & Associates.

Contract: $1.2 million to pay employees to help the city with food and clothing programs for lower-income residents.

What went wrong: Clark & Associates spent $210,344 on furniture, despite the contract requiring the money to be spent solely on employee salaries providing the services.

Where's the furniture? The Human Services Department, 5031 Grandy.

A Detroit nonprofit that received a no-bid, $1.2-million contract from the city to provide services to low-income people misspent $200,000 on furniture that ended up in city offices, the Free Press has learned.

The Human Services Department issued the contract last year to Clark & Associates exclusively to pay its employees to assist with the city's food and clothing assistance programs.

But records obtained by the Free Press show the nonprofit spent $210,344 of the contract on furniture that is now at the Human Services Department's office at 5031 Grandy.

By using a service contract to buy furniture, the department violated a city ordinance that requires City Council approval for purchases of more than $25,000, said Greg Murray, vice president and administrative representative for the Senior Accountants, Analysts and Appraisers Association, which represents some of the Human Services employees.

"A department that gave a no-bid contract to a company gets more than $200,000 in furniture?... There's something wrong," said Murray, who made the council aware of the contract and purchase.