Senator questions $18B for job training, as study suggests rampant waste, abuse

[Geee]

Fox News:

A study commissioned by Sen. Tom Coburn is casting doubt on whether taxpayers' $18 billion annual investment in federal jobs training programs is paying off.

"The vast majority of money we spend in job training doesn't go to job training, it goes to employ people in those job training federal programs," Coburn told Fox News.

The 2011 Government Accountability Office study he commissioned, which examined programs in fiscal year 2009, found an overlapping and duplicative maze of 47 federal jobs programs run by nine agencies. Some were rife with mismanagement, waste, fraud, abuse and corruption.

The study found:

Some job training participants spent their days sitting on a bus.

Some were trained for jobs that didn't exist.

Others were paid to sit through educational sessions about jobs they already had.

High school students were knowingly exposed to the cancer-causing agent asbestos as part of a job training program.

Funds were misspent to pay a contractor for ghost employees and to purchase video games.

Job training administrators spent federal funds on extravagant meals and bonuses for themselves.

In one state, workforce agency employees took more than 100 gambling trips to casinos mostly during work hours.

Coburn’s criticism comes in the heat of a presidential campaign in which President Obama has made funding job training programs a priority. He showcased one program last month at Lorain County Community College in the key swing state of Ohio.

"Ninety percent of people who graduate from this program have a job three months later -- 90 percent," the president told an enthusiastic crowd.