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Home > News > OIG Follow-up Finds Improvements in the Department of Planning and Development’s Neighborhood Opportunity Fund Small Grants Program

OIG Follow-up Finds Improvements in the Department of Planning and Development’s Neighborhood Opportunity Fund Small Grants Program

January 4, 2024

FOR RELEASE:
January 4, 2024

PRESS CONTACT:
Deanna Shoss, Communications, 773-478-8417

The City of Chicago Office of Inspector General (OIG) has released a follow-up report to its December 2022 audit of the Department of Planning and Development’s (DPD) administration of its Neighborhood Opportunity Fund (NOF) Small Grants Program, which provides grants of up to $250,000 to encourage development in Chicago’s West, Southwest, and South Side commercial corridors. OIG’s original audit found a well-administered program that follows its own set of protocols for selecting and monitoring grantees but concluded that DPD lacked specific, documented goals for the program and did not formally measure program performance. This follow-up review finds that DPD has positively implemented most of the corrective actions related to OIG’s recommendations. The Department has defined measurable goals and developed key performance indicators to monitor the success of the NOF program.

“OIG commends DPD’s progress in refining the NOF Small Grants program, emphasizing transparency and strategic growth across Chicago’s South and West sides,” said Deborah Witzburg, Inspector General for the City of Chicago. “These improvements render the program stronger with a clearer public view of the dollar amount of City investment, total project costs, number of projects, and number of locally selected applicants by corridor, ward, region, and community area.”

DPD assessed and implemented corrective actions related to OIG recommendations in the following areas.

  • Grantee Selection & Monitoring: DPD has fully implemented corrective actions, including a detailed NOF Application Timeline and Review process.
  • Performance Measurement: DPD has converted the NOF’s guiding principles into goals for FY 2024, targeting:
    • 20 new grant contracts awarded,
    • $4.5 million disbursed, and
    • completion of 24 projects.
  • Performance Measurement Procedures: DPD has rolled out performance measurement procedures, encompassing weekly data collection, and quarterly and annual reporting.
  • Program Reporting: DPD initiated a standard quarterly reporting system capturing metrics like active projects and disbursed funds. However, key metrics, including the total number of jobs created and vacant commercial units occupied, are yet to be integrated, reflecting the need for further enhancement.

Read the full report here.

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