Department of Labor

Senior Community Service Employment Program Delivery Could Be Improved Through Legislative and Administrative Actions Gao ID: HEHS-96-4 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. GAO summarized this report in testimony before Congress; see: Senior Community Service Employment: Program Delivery Could Be Improved Through Legislative and Administrative Actions, by Cornelia M. Blanchette, Associate Director for Education and Employment Issues, before the Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Youth and Families, House Committee on Economic and Educational Opportunities. GAO/T-HEHS-96-57, Nov. 2 (15 pages).

GAO found that: (1) in order to maintain 1978 activity levels, the Older Americans Act (OAA) requires DOL to award SCSEP grants to national sponsors and those with proven track records; (2) of the $410 million in SCSEP appropriations for program year 1994, $234.5 million was distributed under the 1978 activity level provision; (3) DOL's use of the 1978 allocation pattern severely limited its ability to achieve equitable distribution among states; (4) appropriations statutes have overriden the title V funding provision to require that no more than 22 percent of SCSEP appropriations be allocated to state governments; and (5) in program year 1994, national sponsors' administrative costs exceeded the 15-percent limit due to administrative expenses being charged to another cost category.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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