Copyright 2024 All Rights Reserved.

March 18, 2024

FIPHD – $793,917.31 to ONE Contractor!

By Kirk Allen & John Kraft

On September 30, 2013

FORD CO. – IROQUOIS CO. – FIPHD (ECWd) –

Hang on to your seats folks because this news had damned well better put the icing on the cake and force our public officials, from the US Attorney’s office down through the Illinois Attorney General and your local State’s Attorney to act!

Facts as we know them and have documented them to date:

  1. Ellen McCullough was the Flood Grant Administrator for the FIPHD.
  2. Custom Builders in Watseka reflects the home address of Ellen McCullough. (proof in this article with links)
  3. Multiple sources have confirmed Custom Builders is operated by the husband of Ellen McCullough.
  4. Total flood grant funding received according to records obtained is $4,220,613.50
  5. Total funds paid to one business, reportedly directly tied to the Grant Administrator?

$793,917.31

To a business, that by all indications is owned by the spouse of the Grant Administrator! 

Time for a call to action………….Again! 

  1. How is it that one contractor received approximately 19% of all the Flood Grant money that came into the county?
  2. If you used this contractor did the Health Department tell you this was the designated contractor and if so who told you that?
  3. Were there ever any bids for the work being performed?

What happen to the FIPHD Policy Manual as it relates to Conflicts of Interest?

No officer, employee, or his/her partner, immediate family or agent of this agency will participate in the selection, awarding or administration of a contract, if a conflict of interest, real or apparent, would be involved.  Such a conflict would arise if the officer, employee, agent or an organization which employs, or
is about to employ, any of these persons has a financial or other interest in the firm selected for the award.  To the extent permissible under state or local laws, rules, and regulations, such standards shall provide for  appropriate penalties, sanctions, or other disciplinary actions to be applied for violations of such code of standards of conduct.

Is there ANYONE that is going to demand some answers and explain to the people of Iroquois County, as well as the rest of the state, how a single Grant Administrator managed to pay out over $793,000.00 to a company owned by her spouse, in direct violation of more rules than I have time to list?

How is it that Doug Corbett is not held responsible for his utter failure in over-site on this matter?

When does the Financial record keeper get held accountable, especially since she is the one writing the checks as we understand it, and let’s not forget, she is the human resource manager as well and if this is not a major concern then it’s time to shut this mess down and start over!

As if this is not bad enough, by the time we get done tallying up all the funding employees and their family members received from the grant, of which some had NO DAMAGE, it appears upwards of 30% of the funding received by the Federal Government (Tax money from ALL of us) stayed in the hands of the very people working for the taxpayers!

Mr. Devine, I assured you I had identified Grant fraud and proved that with our paperwork as it relates to the grants managed by Julie Clark, and now by all indications, you have a much bigger problem to deal with and it must be resolved!

If this type of action is permitted in our society then we are done as a country.  May God give you the strength to fight this fight and do right by the people of this state and those of your county! 

Prosecutions are in order!

 For all the employees at the FIPHD that knew this was going on, you should all be fired for not having the moral courage to report it. 

“All it takes for evil to succeed is for a few good men to do nothing“:  Edmund Buke

Prayers are with the leaders who are trying to fix this mess! 


793K 

 

 

SHARE THIS

Share on facebook
Share on twitter
Share on print

RELATED

10 Comments
  • Michael Mastin
    Posted at 20:47h, 30 September

    Michael Mastin liked this on Facebook.

  • Blake Stiff
    Posted at 21:17h, 30 September

    Blake Stiff liked this on Facebook.

  • MURRY
    Posted at 22:11h, 30 September

    WOW …How in the world do you guys keep doing this with NO funding…THANK YOU JOHN AND KIRK AND FAMILYS

  • MURRY
    Posted at 22:17h, 30 September

    You guys in Iroquois county are going to need a bigger jail…

  • Darlene Justice
    Posted at 01:17h, 01 October

    Darlene Justice liked this on Facebook.

  • angry taxpayer
    Posted at 08:34h, 02 October

    I can’t help to think of the health dept board members that were removed standing up in front of the channel 3 news camera and were so sincere in saying that they did nothing wrong. They were either complicit or completely incompetent in their jobs of overseeing the actions of the health dept. I wonder if it’s still the power hungry board chairman they blame now.

  • Jan Yanders
    Posted at 10:00h, 06 October

    First of all Thank you for your diligence in bringing all of this garbage to light! But there were a few employees who tried to get the health board to open their eyes! No one listened!!! Granted this was 2009 but we DID speak up….

    • jmkraft
      Posted at 11:05h, 06 October

      We didn’t mean to imply that ALL the employees were a problem and we do appreciate those that did speak up. That is why we have been saying Ford County needs to replace ALL of their appointed Board of Health members since they knew what was happening, sat there doing nothing, and even condoned it by approving the payments.

  • Older&Wiser
    Posted at 11:37h, 07 October

    It is a sad situation when all the perpetrator’s of the fraud, bullying, etc all work out of the Watseka office. For years, the employees that worked out of the Paxton office have been disrespected and bullied by the “uppity-ups” in Watseka but the Ford County board are the biggest backers of those corrupt people. Ford Co Board, wake up, get some backbones, and start working with the Iroquois Co board to get this mess cleaned up. And Mr. Bowen still needs to apologize to the hard-working honest employees that work for the health department.

  • Older&Wiser
    Posted at 11:44h, 07 October

    Thank you for persisting in trying to get the perpetrator’s of all the crimes committed at the FIPHD to quit. I personally think that they should be charged with the crimes they have committed. I do believe grant fraud is a crime. What puzzles me is why the Ford Co board continues to drag their feet about getting to the bottom of this. The guilty parties all work out of the Iroquois Co office and have, for years, bullied and treated the Ford Co office as second-class citizens. Yet the Ford Co board “doesn’t see any problems”. Wake up. And Rick Bowen owes the hard-working honest employees of the health department an apology. And Elinor Stagen, Teddy Jensen and everyone else who were told about the problems years ago should be ashamed of themselves.

$