Associated Press - by John O'Connor

Federal authorities are investigating another Illinois state grant initiative, this one a job-training program run by an administrator who was fired for mismanagement but has returned to work with back pay and a raise, The Associated Press has learned.

Deveda Francois was dismissed from a $72,400 job at the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity in February 2011 after the agency alleged she distributed confidential information and pressured grant recipients on hiring, according to a review of state documents and interviews by the AP and the Better Government Association.

But an arbitrator ordered the department to rehire Francois. Just weeks earlier, the U.S. attorney in central Illinois demanded records from four organizations that got money from the Employment Opportunities Grant Program, according to a subpoena obtained by the AP and the government watchdog group.

"Unfortunately, we were forced to take her back and we don't have the option of appeal," DCEO spokeswoman Kelly Jakubek said.

Francois is now working in the agency's business development office and has no involvement in state grants, Jakubek said. The former administrator did not return messages left by the AP at her home and the office of a charity she founded, nor through Jakubek.

Lawmakers created the training program in 2006 to help minorities and women get a chance at apprenticeship programs with trade unions traditionally dominated by white men. From 2007 through 2011, DCEO awarded 53 grants worth $19.3 million to not-for-profits, community colleges, business groups and trade unions to help newcomers get a foot in the door and maybe a job. But, as with some other programs created by lawmakers in recent years, authorities suspect money was spent improperly with few results.

The subpoena was at least the fourth involving state grant programs in the last 18 months.

"It sounds like this program has laudable goals – diversifying the trades," said Andy Shaw, the BGA's president and chief executive. "But state-government oversight in recent years sounds deplorable, with millions of dollars in taxpayer money being awarded to groups with ... little success in meeting objectives."

Along with the federal review, the Illinois attorney general won a court judgment against one of the grantees for reimbursement, and DCEO has asked the state's lawyer to recover hundreds of thousands of dollars from another.

The subpoena sent last fall demanded records for four groups that got $2.55 million in grants in 2009 – Chicago-based agencies We Are Our Brother's Keeper, Omega Uplift Foundation, Good Shepherd Community Services Organization and Keep the Faith Foundation. It also demanded Francois' employment records and documentation involving a charity she founded, Diamonds in the Ruff Children's Society.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney declined to comment. Jakubek would only say the commerce department is cooperating and has reformed its grant process.

Jakubek said the agency discovered Francois' wrongdoing, referred allegations to authorities and dismissed her in February 2011. Francois was fired for pressuring grantees to hire certain people, sharing confidential information with people who could benefit from it, reviewing and discussing grant requests with applicants, using her state computer to do work for Diamonds in the Ruff and more.

An independent arbitrator ruled in October that Francois' offenses merited just a 30-day suspension, Jakubek said. Francois returned to work in December with $31,400 in back pay and union-negotiated salary increases totaling 5 percent. She now makes $76,320.

A Cook County judge ordered the return of $917,000 earlier this month from We Are Our Brother's Keeper, run by a former Country Club Hills police chief who resigned last fall amid personal financial problems and the state's lawsuit. The non-profit has already repaid $333,000.

The agency found, among other things, that the former police chief, Regina Evans, and her husband improperly used $12,000 a month in grant money to pay rent to themselves.

Neither Evans nor her husband returned messages the AP left at numerous phone numbers, nor did their attorney respond.

Francois and her staff not only awarded the grants but apparently helped would-be recipients get applications together. She interceded on behalf of We Are Our Brother's Keeper by requesting a letter of recommendation from Rep. Marlow Colvin, D-Chicago. Emails obtained by the Better Government Association include one in which Francois said she liked "to make sure I have as much legislative support in the file as possible" for grantees.

Colvin, in an interview with the AP, said Francois and others questioned why white organizations were getting money to train blacks and Latinos. Colvin said that was the point of the program: To break barriers in traditionally white-dominated organizations, minorities need training, and the white-run groups were successful with the grants they got.

The push for black groups to get grants resulted in money going to some organizations ill-equipped for the task, Colvin said. He acknowledged writing a recommendation for one of them but said he was supporting a program in his district and it looked like the Evanses had a solid plan.

The head of Omega Uplift Foundation said a vindictive Francois cut off his funds and DCEO ordered him to repay $267,000 of his $500,000 grant because he made staff changes and wouldn't hire people she suggested.

"She said, 'You weren't even around when this was all created. How can you come in here and change everything?'" Omega president Reginald Summerrise said.

After one session in which Omega trained the required 15 people, the grant was canceled on the grounds the foundation hadn't trained enough workers, he said. He said he wasn't aware that DCEO has asked the attorney general to retrieve the balance of the grant.

According to Jakubek, DCEO found problems with Omega, including conflicts of interest and missing documentation for expenses, in a review that didn't involve Francois.

Good Shepherd Community Services was forced to return about $116,000, Jakubek said. Keep the Faith Foundation was not asked to return money. The AP's messages seeking comment were not returned by administrators at either agency.