Exclusive: Atlanta ordered to repay funds

ATLANTA - The city of Atlanta is losing about $2 million it got from the federal government. The feds said that the city misspent that money that was earmarked for job training.

The program was supposed to provide a subsidy through the Atlanta Workforce Development for new workers who trained and employed by certain employers. But as investigators learned, some of the names were of people already employed.

“Taxpayers deserve their money's worth plain and simple in anything that's done. And I’m disappointed by the outcome of this,” said Kwanza Hall with the Atlanta City Council.

Job training and job placement was the mission of the city agency. The U.S. Department of Justice had an ongoing investigation looking at alleged falsified records in which more than $1.8 million in U.S. Department of Labor grant money, generated by taxpayer dollars, were squandered.

Kwanza Hall is one of the city council members who were advised on Monday to approve a settlement returning that grant money to the U.S. Treasury even as the DOJ probe continues.

According to sources familiar with practices at AWDA, the period the feds are looking at covers 2010 through 2014. Funds went to private companies purportedly as a subsidy to train and place the underemployed. Yet, in many cases, the names on those records were people who either already had jobs or did not need the training.

“Yes. So I’m disappointed by the fact that we had to discover that there's claims being made by individuals and organizations as well as outside that proved that things were not really working like they're supposed to be,” Hall said in response to question about if the probe found false claims.

When discrepancies started to bubble up during Mayor Kasim Reed's first term, critics blasted the AWDA calling for it to be eliminated.

Council member Hall disagrees with the critics.

“No, no, no. Workforce development is a critical element of our economy and of the rebirth of cities and regeneration of communities that have been in disrepair and disinvested. And nationally we've seen what workforce agencies can do,” said Hall.

Mayor Reed’s office said they cannot discuss the investigation because it is still on-going. Hall and the other council members were told about this in secret in what is called an “executive session.” The time period investigators are focusing on was under a former direct and not the current director of the Atlanta Workforce Development.