Economic Development Administration: Panhandle Area Council, Hayden, Idaho, Revolving Loan Fund. EDA Grant No. 07-39-02500.03

摘要

The Economic Development Administration awarded grant No. 07-39-02500.03 to the Panhandle Area Council in June 1998 in the amount of $350,000 to recapitalize a revolving loan fund originally awarded in 1982. We found that the Council did not utilize the EDA RLF during the period of recapitalization. Many of the loan applications processed by the Council during this period qualified for financing under several other loan programs,and the Council opted to use the other loan programs instead of the EDA ELF. Consequently,no loans were funded by the EDA RLF since January 1998,and there is little prospect of using there capitalized funds before the expiration of the grant disbursement schedule in June 2001. The existing RLF had a cash balance of over $661,000 at September 30,2000, and therefore had sufficient funds to meet current loan demands. Therefore, we recommend that EDA terminate the recapitalization award and deobligate the $350,000 balance. We also recommend that EDA monitor the existing RLF to ensure that the fund is serving its intended purpose.