An Obama administration program that has given out thousands of loans to refugees since 2010 has no system in place to track if recipients default on the taxpayer money, according to documents obtained Friday by Judicial Watch.
The program which is called Microenterprise Development is ran by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Refugee Resettlement. It has been in place since 2010 and the loans are in amount of up to $15,000. In 2015, 558 loans were granted to refuges but the specific value is unknown. This represents potentially $8.37 million in taxpayer money given to refugees.
According to the guidelines set by the Microenterprise Development program, most of the recipients who get the loans already receive government assistance. The goal is to “equip refugees with the skills they need to become successful entrepreneurs” by helping them expand or maintain their own business and become financially independent.”
Between 2010 to 2016, 3,096 loans were given out through this program and the HHS has no mechanism for tracking defaulted loans. That is potentially $46,440,000 of taxpayer loans with no oversight. According to records obtained by Judicial Watch, HHS is “preparing to collect this information in the future.”