Friday, February 19, 2010
In an ominous sign for the upcoming census, the federal government last year wasted millions of dollars training temporary employees who never did any work for the U.S. Census Bureau. The agency in charge of carrying out the nation’s decennial headcount is planning to hire 1 million workers this year to canvass neighborhoods and get Americans to complete their census forms. But if what happened last year is any indication of the Census Bureau’s inefficiency, the government could wind up wasting even more money.
An audit performed by the Department of Commerce’s inspector general discovered that more than 10,000 census employees were paid at least $300 apiece to attend training in 2009, but they either quit or were let go before they could perform any work. In addition to this $3 million loss, another 5,000 employees collected $300 for the same training but worked only a single day or less, wasting another $1.5 million.
Also, some workers were overpaid for mileage reimbursement, costing the agency $136,000.
A Census Bureau spokesman attributed the mishaps to the agency being overrun with applicants seeking work, resulting in more people showing up at training workshops than were needed.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
Census Workers Who Did No Work Were Paid (by Ed O'Keefe, Washington Post)
Millions wasted on census as head count approaches (by Hope Yen, Associated Press)
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