Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development

This is a state audit of certain activities in the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development's 2009 youth summer jobs program, focused on federal stimulus money.

“In accordance with Chapter 11, Section 12, of the Massachusetts General Laws, we have conducted an audit of certain activities of EOLWD’s 2009 Summer Jobs & Youth Program.”

Auditors checked whether the program was properly run and followed federal youth employment rules under the Workforce Investment Act.

“The objectives of our audit were to assess the implementation and compliance with summer youth employment opportunities under the Workforce Investment Act of 1998 (WIA) that is administered by EOLWD and its various agencies.”

More than $24 million in federal stimulus and public safety funds went to support this program, so accurate oversight and reporting mattered.

“EOLWD was awarded $21.1 million in ARRA funds through the WIA Title I Youth funding stream and an additional $3.1 million in public safety funds through the United States Department of Justice Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) Program.”

For residents, the program was meant to give low-income young people paid summer work and training, especially youths facing barriers to employment.

“The purpose of these funds is intended to provide summer employment opportunities and training activities for low-income youths between the ages of 14 to 24 with certain prescribed barriers to employment as delineated by the policies and procedures issued by the DOL and further enumerated by EOLWD.”

The main problem was not eligibility, but counting: the system counted some people as participants even when they never worked or participated very little.

“Once in-take information is entered into the system on a qualified participant, the individual is counted as a participant, regardless of their level of participation.”

The auditor said EOLWD should tighten monitoring so reported participant numbers reflect who actually took part.

“EOLWD needs to improve its monitoring not only to ensure that only qualified individuals are enrolled, but also to ensure their actual participation in the program.”

At the three reviewed workforce boards, auditors found 753 qualified youths, but 39 never showed up and 72 of the 714 confirmed participants worked fewer than 50 hours.

“Of the 714 confirmed participants, 72 enrollees, or approximately 10%, had participated less than 50 hours in the designated 25-hour per week, six-week program.”

MOSES is the state employment-system database used to enter participant information; the audit says it could not adjust enrollee counts after intake.

“MOSES does not allow for any sort of modification to the reported number of enrollees.”