Ohio's Faith-Based Office Under Investgation By New Governor

Ohio Governor Ted Strickland has asked the state's Inspector General to investigate how the Governor's Office on Faith-Based and Community Initiatives (OFBCI) is being administered, and has asked the Department of Job and Family Services to audit OFBCI's finances. Yesterday's Dayton Daily News reports that under former Governor Bob Taft, OFBCI may have misspent some of its $22 million budget that was supposed to go to small churches and community organizations helping the needy. Funds went instead for downtown parking spaces and large screen televisions. Also, OFBCI paid rent for We Care America, a contractor hired to help oversee grants. We Care America in turn paid for a subcontractor who, along with Baylor University Professor Byron Johnson, wrote a report praising Ohio's faith-based office as one of the best in the country. Gov. Strickland, a Democrat who was elected last November, recently replaced the OFBCI staff and ordered a hold on new contracts until all existing programs are reviewed.