Department of Labor

Administration of the InVEST Program

The Department of Labor administers a number of job training and job placement programs in which contractors are paid set amounts when program participants reach certain program milestones. For example, contractors may be paid when participants complete their course of training or obtain employment. We examined the Department’s administration of one such program (the InVEST Program). We visited 4 of the 100 InVEST Program contractors and examined documentation supporting their participants’ achievement of program milestones. We found the documentation did not always provide reliable evidence the milestones had in fact been achieved. For example, we could not confirm job claims for 559 participants, and identified 67 participant social security numbers that may have been invalid. We recommended that the Department strengthen its documentation requirements for its job training and job placement programs, and monitor program contractors more closely. We also recommended that potential InVEST Program overpayments of $714,375 be investigated and recovered, as appropriate.

For a complete copy of Report 2003-S-17 click here.
For a copy of the associated follow-up report click here.