Watchdog says stimulus dollars being misused

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The state’s inspector general for American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds, said Wednesday that payments should be frozen to a company receiving federal economic-stimulus dollars to weatherize homes in Southern California.

Laura Chick said workers performing government-funded weatherizing work on homes in San Diego and Imperial counties are not properly trained, and that federal money should be blocked from the project until the problem is remedied.

‘Though the work is being performed, there is no assurance that it is being done properly, according to building codes and regulations and done properly in order to achieve the energy savings desired,” Chick wrote in a letter to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The company, Campesinos Unidos, has been awarded $2.7 million in Recovery Act funds to weatherize homes of low-income residents.

-- Patrick McGreevy in Sacramento