Look!

Accountability in some form!

• Nearly 375 workers in government agencies across Illinois engaged in misconduct related to the federal Paycheck Protection Program, a long-running investigation by the state executive inspector general’s office has found.

  They either put in for and got PPP loans they didn’t qualify for or didn’t disclose to their government employers the side businesses they claimed to be running to get the money, according to the inspector general’s office.

  Susan Haling, the executive inspector general, began the investigation in 2022. Her office investigates wrongdoing involving state workers and employees of some local government agencies, including the CTA and PACE.

  The agency said Friday that it has found 373 people — out of 501 cases it has investigated involving suspected PPP fraud — engaged in some type of wrongdoing. Investigations involving 54 workers were closed in the year that ended June 30, state records show. Those cases involved about $1.19 million in suspicious PPP loans, according to the state agency. Two of those 54 employees ended up being fired. The rest resigned.

So a batting average of about 100% for all intents and purposes in terms of removing the criminals from the payroll. No word on how many were eligible to retie anyway, how many are currently collecting a pension and how much money was actually recovered.

And of all the government agencies being investigated, there don't seem to be any from OEMC or CPD, which were notoriously involved with a bit of the fraud. A quick search of the PPP database provided a roadmap to numerous offenders.