ND group ordered to repay $124K in misspent funds
BISMARCK, N.D. — A group that represents North Dakota’s ambulance and emergency workers was ordered Wednesday to repay more than $124,000 in federal disaster planning money spent on alcohol, lobbying and other questionable expenses.
The North Dakota EMS Association, which represents about 1,800 ambulance and emergency workers, may be barred from seeking any more federal grant money, said Tim Wiedrich, chief of the North Dakota Health Department’s emergency preparedness and response section.
The Bismarck-based EMS association received about $810,000 between 2004 and last year to help produce a plan to fight bioterrorism and other mass disasters.
In a Wednesday letter obtained by The Associated Press, the state Health Department told the group that an audit found $157,425 in expenses that were either “unallowable” or lacked receipts. The letter said $33,300 would be denied and $124,125 must be repaid.
Wiedrich said the nonprofit wrongly spent money on lobbying, cell phones, meals and alcoholic drinks, salaries and bonuses.
Mark Weber, the association’s president, did not immediately return telephone calls seeking comment. He said earlier the group would repay the money but felt it was spent appropriately.
Wiedrich said most of the questionable expenses involved salaries charged to the grant that lacked documentation such as time sheets.
“There were many expenses that were charged to the grant that couldn’t be documented for grant purposes,” Wiedrich said. “There were other items that were clearly unallowed, like alcohol expenses.”
How and when the group will pay the money back is unclear. It receives less than $200,000 annually from its other funding sources, including membership, testing and conferences. Wiedrich said the association was not given a deadline.
“It’s not something that’s expected to be protracted, however,” he said.
The EMS association did produce an adequate plan to deal with mass disasters, despite the misspending, Wiedrich said.
“But to be clear, we don’t have any contracts with them now,” he said.
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