Is This Remiss Of Lisbon's Professional Development Slush Fund? - UPDATE: Maine Housing Spent Millions in Travel and Training‏

 

UPDATE: MAINE HOUSING SPENT MILLIONS IN TRAVEL, TRAINING

 

Travel spending has risen 137% in last five years, training has risen 287%

 

PORTLAND - Data obtained by The Maine Heritage Policy Center as part of a Freedom of Access

Act request shows the Maine State Housing Authority spent millions on travel and training

expenses over the last 12 years.

Since 1998, MSHA spent approximately $1.6 million in business travel. Spending in this

category has risen 247% since 1998, and 137% since the current director, Dale McCormick, took

over the operation in 2005.

 

MSHA has spent more than $4.5 million in education and training expenses since 1998. The annual amount spent on training actually decreased from 1998 to 2004, but rose a staggering

287% since McCormick took over. In 2004, the annual training expense at MSHA was $267,000.

By 2010, it had risen to over $779,000 per year.

 

 

 

Additionally, Maine Housing has spent over $10.1 million on consulting fees, categorized as ‘professional services.’ In 1998, MSHA spent roughly $332,000 on consultants. In 2010, that

number had increased to more than $1.5 million a year, a 462% increase.

 

The categorization of Maine Housing expenditures points to many more potential problems with the financial management of the organization. Many of the expenses within these categories appear

to be misallocated, casting a shadow on the veracity of the data released.

 

The ‘education/training’ category in particular appears to be used as a catch-all for dining and entertainment expenditures. Listed within this category are such heralded institutions of higher

learning as the Ground Round restaurant in Augusta, Pushard’s Okinawan Karate,  Abracadabra Productions, a magician, and Little Dan’s BBQ.

 

Expenses paid to Funtown/Splashtown USA, a Saco water park, are listed as ‘office supplies’,

along with  Are You Ready to Party, inc., Healing Hands Therapeutic Massage, and Sandcastle Entertainment, a company that rents inflatable bounce-houses and slides.

 

“It is clear that the Maine State Housing Authority has strayed far from its mission,” said Lance

Dutson, Chief Executive Officer of The Maine Heritage Policy Center. “A line-by-line accounting of MSHA expenditures needs to happen, and accountability for potentially millions in wasted spending needs to be established. With 6,500 families on a waiting list for affordable housing, and with a considerable shortfall in federal heating assistance, wasting precious public dollars, especially on

this grand a scale, cannot be tolerated.”