NBC 4 Report On Outsourced Jobs Fuels New Call For Stimulus Oversight

Two prominent Ohio Republicans are renewing their calls for a panel to oversee stimulus-funded projects following an NBC 4 report on Ohio's Energy Efficient Appliance Rebate Program that found call center jobs were outsourced to Central America.

House Republican Leader John Boehner and Congressman Bob Latta of Bowling Green repeated previous calls for a bipartisan, independent oversight panel comprised of government officials and members of Ohio's Certified Public Accounting and auditing communities to monitor stimulus programs. In a news release, Congressmen Latta's office cited the NBC4 report as reason for panel's establishment.

On Tuesday, NBC 4's Patrick Preston reported that Texas-based Parago, the company hired by Ohio to administer the state's appliance rebate program, had outsourced its call center jobs to Central America.

Nadeane Howard, Director of the Ohio Department of Development's Energy Resources Division, said ODOD's contract with Parago did not require the call center jobs to stay in America.

"Did you know the Texas-based company would outsource its call center duties to another country?," Preston asked Howard.

"We did not know that initially," Howard responded. "The moment we found out, the director of this agency issued a request to Parago to please on-shore their call center."

"Have they complied with that request?," Preston asked.

"They don't have an on-shore call center that they can utilize, so with the program winding down it still resides offshore," Howard replied.

"As President Obama and Governor Strickland continue to tout the 'success' of the 'stimulus package' in the face of record high unemployment, this story only confirms the fact that independent oversight is long overdue, which we called for last year," Congressman Latta said in the news release issued Thursday. "It is beyond comprehension that not only was this project outsourced to another state, but that these jobs would eventually end up overseas."

"The White House, with the support of Governor Strickland, pledged that the 'stimulus' would create jobs immediately in our state, yet more than 100,000 Ohioans have lost their jobs since this trillion-dollar bill was enacted," Congressman Boehner said in the release. "Gov. Strickland owes Ohio families asking 'Where are the jobs?' an explanation as to why 'stimulus' funds allocated by his administration were used to create jobs in Central America, and why he has repeatedly refused to establish an independent, bipartisan panel to prevent this misuse of taxpayer dollars."

Responding to the criticism Thursday, Ohio Governor Ted Strickland told a group of reporters, "I'm incredibly disappointed, determined never to let it happen again. It shouldn't have happened. We were unaware that this company would outsource these jobs. Perhaps we could have done a better job vetting the company."

"Any company that's going to outsource jobs using these resources or other state resources will not receive a contract from us."

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