The $3 million grant program to weatherize homes by the Maine Green Energy Alliance had been in the headlines lately for all the wrong reasons.

The group was investigated by the Office of Program Evaluation and Government Accountability, which released a report in August to the state legislature’s Government Oversight Committee. The report concluded that there was no misuse of funds, but said Efficiency Maine Trust should have known that Maine Green Energy Alliance was not able to handle the grant program to administer federal funds for weatherization projects.

The alliance was phased out after retrofitting only 50 homes after about six months. And although funds were not misused, the program could have signed up 1,000 homes for energy improvements.

Whether or not politics played a part in the Efficiency Maine Trust’s decision to hire the Maine Green Energy Alliance, it seems like they should have known better. The report stated that the alliance “lacked the capacity to adequately administer federal funds when the grant was received” ”“ and the trust knew it.

Sen. Roger Katz, R-Augusta, who serves as co-chairman of the legislature’s Government Oversight Committee, said, “The good news is nobody stole any money. The bad news is the people’s business is not being conducted in a way we should expect.”

The good news is also that the legislature now has the opportunity to make sure this doesn’t happen again in the future.

According to an Associated Press article, Michael Stoddard, executive director of Efficiency Maine Trust, said a number of corrective actions have been put in place since the audit report was released.

The issue also prompted legislators to ask how the audit report was leaked to the public before it was completed, and the Government Oversight Committee will look into the law regulating releases of documents before they are finalized.

The committee should also take the opportunity to look into how agencies like the Efficiency Maine Trust award contracts like the grant program to other organizations. When millions of dollars are involved, legislators would be well-served to ensure the organization in charge is capable of handling the funds in a way in which their constituents would approve.

According to the report, the alliance had poor financial controls, didn’t follow all federal requirements for hiring or procurement, failed to maintain all expense records, allowed the executive director to approve his own expense records, and paid a board member for his services.

Having a plan in place for the Office of Program Evaluation and Government Accountability to review such programs before they are in place and for the duration would mean programs administering funds like this could make changes to improve their operations so that they could continue to function as intended. Instead, the state is left 950 homes short of its goal to weatherize and save on energy costs.

In this situation, the residents of Maine lose, and we hope legislators will work to ensure this does not happen again in the future.

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Today’s editorial was written by City Editor Robyn Burnham, on behalf of the Journal Tribune editorial board. Questions? Comments? Contact Managing Editor Kristen Schulze Muszynski by calling 282-1535, Ext. 322, or via e-mail at kristenm@journaltribune.com.