WELFARE WRECKS

Investigative Reporters and Editors, Inc. The IRE Journal, May/Jun 2004 by Finn, Scott, Eyre, Eric

Also, we had trouble finding program participants at first. State confidentiality laws prevent the release of their names (although that didn't stop program officials from releasing a 10-page report that trashed three recipients from our articles.)

We found one participant from an old news article when the program first started. Grant documents led us to former employees in the program, who often were glad to help us find participants.

We used the state Freedom of Information Act to find complaint letters program participants sent to state officials. Although identifying information was blacked out, sometimes an e-mail address or phone number survived. Of course, we received many calls from participants after we published the first article.

Some welfare recipients complained about their cars, but were afraid of retaliation if they went on the record.

Former employees alleged kickbacks were common between dealers and program officials, but they lacked the documents to back up their claims.

One used-car dealer even threatened us, at first with legal action, and then physically, if we continued working on this story.

We can point to five state investigations as a concrete result of our series, but we have no way of predicting how those will turn out. We have learned it can take months and even years before government investigators release their findings.

BY SCOTT FINN AND ERIC EYRE

CHARLESTON (W.VA.) GAZETTE

Eric Eyre is education reporter and Scott Finn is statehouse reporter for the Charleston Gazette.