Waste of the Day: Mississippi Doesn’t Track Nonprofit Funds
Topline: Mississippi has sent $1.2 billion to nonprofits since fiscal year 2023, but several are allegedly “wasting taxpayer funds” on “bloated employee salaries, gift cards, gym memberships” and more, according to a recent report from State Auditor Shad White.
It’s no wonder it took so long to identify the misused funds. White’s office claims that until this year, “no one in state government could determine the total amount of taxpayer money going to nonprofits, or even produce a list of the nonprofits receiving government money.”
Key facts: The Mississippi Health Department Office of Preventive Health and Health Equity awarded $250,000 to the nonprofit My Brother’s Keeper to study “racially and ethnically diverse populations disproportionately affected by high cardiovascular disease rates.”
Records show the nonprofit was reimbursed $17,500 for 24 three-month memberships to a local gym and hundreds of individual training sessions. When auditors asked why the memberships were necessary, Mississippi Health Department staff had no idea.
The nonprofit promised to target a “disadvantaged” population through its work, but the health department did not know whether that actually happened. Over 60% of the people participating in the study had a college degree.
Mississippi also sent $40,000 to the nonprofit 100 Black Men of Jackson to “address health disparities among African American youth in Mississippi which has been a longstanding concern, reflecting a complex interplay of socioeconomic, environmental, and systemic factors.” The group spent $2,400 on gift cards, headphones and speakers, and $2,000 on T-shirts, which were not budgeted for.
According to the audit, grant recipients in Mississippi are not required to submit documents showing how much money they have received from the state or how the money was spent. State agencies often do not even verify whether the nonprofits are properly registered with the Secretary of State.
Search all federal, state and local salaries and vendor spending with the world’s largest government spending database at OpenTheBooks.com.
Summary: While White’s audit may have some flaws — like targeting some expenses that might not be truly wasteful, like an executive director earning a $74,000 salary — it identifies several examples of taxpayer funds being misused for things like gym memberships and headphones, and highlights the need for more oversight.
The #WasteOfTheDay is brought to you by the forensic auditors at OpenTheBooks.com
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