Topline: In 2005, the federal government gave a $500,000 grant to music education group B InTune and directed them to report back a year later on how the money was spent.
Government officials couldn't even get in touch with B InTune for years afterwards, but they awarded them another $430,000 in 2008.
That’s according to the “Wastebook” reporting published by the late U.S. Senator Dr. Tom Coburn. For years, these reports shined a white-hot spotlight on federal frauds and taxpayer abuses.
Coburn, the legendary U.S. Senator from Oklahoma, earned the nickname "Dr. No" by stopping thousands of pork-barrel projects using the Senate rules. Projects that he couldn't stop, Coburn included in his oversight reports.
Coburn's Wastebook 2008 included 65 examples of outrageous spending worth more than $1.3 billion, including the $430,000 music grant — the combined $930,000 grants would be worth $1.3 million today.
Key facts: B InTune received the money in 2005 to develop lesson plans about funk music and Nobel Peace Prize winners.
Then-House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) earmarked even more money for the group in the 2008 federal budget — so the Washington Post asked the Education Department whether the first grant had been spent efficiently.
The government’s response? “We don’t know.”
B InTune never submitted a spending report, which was due in September 2006.
Officials tried to contact the nonprofit, but its old phone number and email were out of service and its website contained no contact information.
The Washington Post managed to get in touch with B InTune, who then reached out to the Department of Education.
To this day, it’s unclear how the grant money was spent. Some of the funds were designated for B InTune to hire former school superintendent Joan Kozlovsky, but she told the Washington Post she hadn’t spoken to the nonprofit in years. B InTune said other projects were carried out with delays after a senior consultant got sick.
None of that stopped Hoyer from filing the earmark in 2008. The Washington Post noted that B InTune employees had contributed $31,000 to Hoyer’s political action committee in the past.
Summary: If a group is going to take a $430,000 handout from the federal government, answering the phone should at least be a required courtesy.
The #WasteOfTheDay is brought to you by the forensic auditors at OpenTheBooks.com
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