Senior Community Service Employment

Program Delivery Could Be Improved Through Legislative and Administrative Actions Gao ID: T-HEHS-96-57 November 2, 1995

The Labor Department's Senior Community Service Employment Program finances part-time, minimum-wage community service jobs for about 100,000 poor elderly Americans. GAO found that Labor distributes program funds through noncompetitive grants to 10 national organizations, called national sponsors, and to state agencies. These national sponsors and state agencies, in turn, use the grant funds to finance local employment projects run by community service host agencies, such as libraries, nutrition centers, and parks--that directly employ older Americans. GAO found that the relative distribution of funds to the national sponsors and state agencies along with Labor's method of implementing the hold harmless provisions have resulted in the distribution of funds among and within states that bear little relationship to actual need. GAO also found that, under Labor's regulations, expenditures that GAO believes to be administrative in nature may be charged to another cost category, allowing grantees to exceed the statutory 15-percent limit on administrative costs.



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