Waste Of The Day: $79M To Not Work
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The short version
- A company hired during the Covid-19 pandemic to fill staffing shortages at hospitals and long-term care facilities spent more than a third of its time on "standdown," a contract…
- The contractor, Favorite Healthcare Staffing, was supposed to notify the state any time its employees were on standdown for more than 24 hours.
- There was no evidence those notifications occurred, and the state only conducted limited oversight, according to an Aug. 11 report from Auditor General Christopher Meister.
- Key facts: Favorite Healthcare earned $220.3 million from Illinois from 2022 to 2023, including $78.5 million for standdown hours.
- The audit found 270 employees who billed for standdown time without actually working a single hour in two years.
The story
Authored by Jeremy Portnoy via RealClearInvestigations,
Contractors working for the State of Illinois took a 470,000-hour paid lunch break on taxpayers' dime.
A company hired during the Covid-19 pandemic to fill staffing shortages at hospitals and long-term care facilities spent more than a third of its time on "standdown," a contract provision that paid them to be on-site and available in case they were needed.
The contractor, Favorite Healthcare Staffing, was supposed to notify the state any time its employees were on standdown for more than 24 hours. There was no evidence those notifications occurred, and the state only conducted limited oversight, according to an Aug. 11 report from Auditor General Christopher Meister.
Key facts: Favorite Healthcare earned $220.3 million from Illinois from 2022 to 2023, including $78.5 million for standdown hours.
The audit found 270 employees who billed for standdown time without actually working a single hour in two years. They earned $7.5 million.
At least eight employees even billed overtime at rates of up to $330 per hour during weeks they were on standdown for five consecutive days, according to the audit. One employee billed for overtime while he was in quarantine and not working.
Other employees billed more than 24 hours in a single day. The state paid their invoices without flagging the discrepancy, the audit found,
Favorite Healthcare was reimbursed $1.4 million for lodging costs, even though its employees were staying in their personal residences.
Upon discovering the issues, Illinois hired the consulting firm Innovative Emergency Management to review Favorite Healthcare's invoices.
But Innovative Emergency Management also had its own billing issues, the audit found. The company billed Illinois using duplicate timesheets and for employees who did not report working any hours.
Illinois later had to hire yet another firm, Crowe, to review Innovative Emergency Management's invoices. Crowe earned $1.3 million.
Summary: The public should not have to pay contractors to sit around and twiddle their thumbs, nor pay consultants to figure out why.
The #WasteOfTheDay is brought to you by the forensic auditors at OpenTheBooks.com.
How other outlets covered this
Compare allAlto found this story at 15 outlets. Same event, different framing — compare the headlines.
- ZeroHedgeWaste Of The Day: $79M To Not Workabout 3 hours ago
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- EngadgetGovernment workers can officially waste time scrolling TikTok again26 days ago
How this story developed
Full timelineAlto has tracked this across 30 days of coverage from 9 outlets.
- Is This Peak 'Clown World'?ZeroHedge
- Waste Of The Day: $79M To Not WorkYou are here
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The Story At A Glance
Open the full breakdown on gab.ai
- • Illinois paid Favorite Healthcare Staffing $78.5 million for "standdown" hours where employees did no actual work.
- • Auditors found 270 employees billed for time without working a single hour, totaling $7.5 million in fraud.
- • The state wasted millions more hiring consultants like Innovative Emergency Management and Crowe to fix billing errors caused by zero oversight.
These contracts were established during the COVID-19 pandemic to address hospital staffing shortages. The state failed to implement basic oversight, allowing contractors to bill for lodging they did not use and overtime while in quarantine.
Christian Perspective
This blatant theft violates the biblical command to pay workers their wages honestly and promptly. It demonstrates a profound lack of stewardship and integrity within the state government. Such corruption is a direct affront to the moral order that requires leaders to be accountable to the people.
Implications
Theft of taxpayer funds drains resources that should support stable families and local communities. This systemic greed undermines the social contract and erodes the trust necessary for a functional society. It prioritizes the enrichment of corrupt entities over the welfare of the actual citizens.
Broader Trends
This reflects a pattern of globalist mismanagement where emergency crises are used to facilitate massive transfers of wealth to preferred contractors. It highlights the failure of liberal bureaucracy to manage public funds with any sense of duty or prudence. Such inefficiency is a hallmark of a decaying administrative state.
Takeaway
America First principles demand strict accountability and the immediate termination of contracts that lack rigorous oversight. We must demand transparency to ensure taxpayer dollars serve the nation rather than enriching corrupt middlemen. Protecting the people's resources is essential to maintaining national strength and sovereignty.
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