Official resigns over offshore stimulus work

August 11, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Associated Press

COLUMBUS

An Ohio Department of Development official resigned Tuesday amid an investigation into federal stimulus money that went to an overseas call center.

The resignation follows a preliminary review regarding a Texas company hired to administer Ohio’s $11 million appliance rebate program, department Director Lisa Patt-McDaniel told WCMH-TV for a story on the Columbus station’s website.

Lewisville, Texas-based Parago Inc. used workers in El Salvador to process applications and answer customer calls.

The resignation of Nadeane Howard, director of the department’s energy resources division, is effective immediately.

Patt-McDaniel said an e-mail to Howard in February, before the contract with Parago was final, raised a question about the company’s potential outsourcing of jobs. She said Howard did not recall it when approached about a month later.

“Gov. [Ted] Strickland and I are opposed to using offshore labor, and I am extremely disappointed to learn that a key leader in my department was not more sensitive to the priorities of this administration,” Patt-McDaniel said.

On Friday, Strickland issued an order reiterating the state’s prohibition on spending taxpayer money on services conducted outside the United States.

State officials learned of the offshore workers on the day the stimulus program began in March, after a customer asked a call-center employee where he was located and then complained to the state.

The Ohio energy-efficient appliance rebates were part of a program under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which was passed with the goals of creating and saving U.S. jobs, spurring economic activity and fostering transparency in government spending.

Patt-McDaniel also on Tuesday suspended for three days the employee responsible for administering the rebate program. She said the review is ongoing.