EDC forfeits control of Head Start money

MONCKS CORNER — The Berkeley-Dorchester Counties Economic Development Council will relinquish control over federal Head Start and state grants immediately, officials said this morning.

The embattled agency is running a deficit of at least $1.2 million and officials say the move allows the local Head Start program to continue serving the 1,650 children in Berkeley, Dorchester and Charleston Counties without interruption.

In a letter to the state Office of Economic Opportunity dated Wednesday, EDC Board Chairman Levy Berry wrote that the board “regretfully” voted to relinquish control of state programs that assist with power bills and home weatherization. Joel Sawyer, communications director for Gov. Mark Sanford, said the state hopes to transfer state funds to the local Charleston agency, which means those state programs could resume in a matter of weeks.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which controls Head Start on a federal level, has already designated an interim grantee to control the funding in case the EDC was unable to move forward.

The EDC’s financial problems came to light earlier this month when a state report revealed that it repeatedly violated regulations governing how the money should be spent.

The report, issued by the state Office of Economic Opportunity, said some of the EDC’s employees were issued large checks without justification.

The state said tracking where the money went has been difficult because the agency mingled state and federal grant money and maintained poor and unreliable financial records, among other things.

Federal guidelines required the state to give the agency 30 days to fix the shortcomings and answer questions or risk losing control of the grant money.

Former director Patsy Gardner resigned days after the report was issued. Berry later said that Gardner was asked to resigned after it became clear there were problems with the agency.

Berry said the board was kept out of the loop and given inaccurate information.

The board’s policy council has made similar accusations toward the board for the last couple of years.

The Policy Council, which is composed of parents and community members, nearly cost the board its grant money this year when it initially refused to approve its $12 million budget because it said the board refused to share information about its spending.

Read more in tomorrow’s Post and Courier.