July 24, 2025
A state audit reveals a scarcity of documentation supporting how state-issued funds had been spent.
A New Orleans group created to supply job coaching and placement, in addition to assist stop evictions, spent practically half of its state funding on charitable bingo video games that generated much less cash than they price, in response to the Louisiana Legislative Auditor.
In keeping with the audit launched on July 21, specialists said that the Nationwide Affiliation for African American Financial Growth (NAAAED) obtained $400,000 from the state of Louisiana within the earlier yr. Data confirmed that it spent practically half ($199,568) on internet hosting bingo video games, which had been supposed to generate funds for its mission, an exercise prohibited below its cooperative endeavor settlement with the state.
The audit additionally revealed that the group awarded $185,000 to companies and different recipients however did not doc how that cash was used. The auditor’s overview additionally discovered the affiliation spent greater than $52,000 to hire the constructing the place it held its bingo video games within the Central Metropolis neighborhood close to the New Orleans Superdome.
NAAAED founder, Myron Lee Sr., admitted that the group stretched its price range too skinny.
“We tried to meet up with it as greatest we might,” Lee instructed Louisiana Illuminator. “ We tried to make it work as greatest we might, and I feel we bought sort of overzealous.”
Lee stated he overestimated the neighborhood’s curiosity in attending the bingo video games meant to boost cash for the group.
“We didn’t have the visibility that we might have usually had at one other location, which in all probability might have garnered extra individuals to come back.”
Underneath its cooperative endeavor settlement with the state, the affiliation is required to distribute roughly $680,000 to fulfill its targets, which embody enrolling at the least 125 people in coaching applications, securing job placement, and offering eviction prevention companies by June 30, 2024. The group should additionally submit a quarterly progress and value report often. As of March 5, the affiliation had not submitted any experiences demonstrating that it fulfilled the phrases of its settlement.
The information confirmed that the NAAAED paid $115,000 to Proficient Media Companies, a manufacturing firm that Lee claimed was to create a movie that might “stimulate the native economic system” whereas offering film-related job coaching, comparable to digital camera, lighting, and sound work. Lee instructed the Louisiana Illuminator that NAAAED and Proficient Media produced “a collection of documentaries” the place college students participated in numerous manufacturing roles. In keeping with the audit report, NAAAED paid $23,000 to an unnamed program director and spent $50,000 on cameras and set design gear.
In his written response to the auditor, Lee said that his group will rent an authorized public accountant to assist deliver it into compliance with the state’s required guidelines in addition to enhance its record-keeping practices.
“Our administrative assistant might be extra concerned in making certain well timed submission of experiences. In keeping with our corrective motion plan, we are going to have interaction basic counsel to advise us of authorized contractual issues/obligations with respect to the state contracts. This can make sure that the identical errors should not made once more,” Lee wrote.
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