By Kevin Lavery, KWMU
St. Louis – An audit released Thursday finds Missouri missed out on $3.5 million worth of federal grants because state agencies did not know the funding was available.
State auditor Claire McCaskill calls the situation "distressing." She says there are no systems in place to identify and prioritize potential grants.
McCaskill says Missouri also lost nearly $5 million in grants because budget cuts eliminated state matching fund programs.
"Some of the programs that were cut--the general revenue dollars--actually were able to generate two dollars for every one dollar we were spending," McCaskill said. "And there didn't appear to be any attempt to identify the cuts that were being made as to whether or not they were cost effective cuts."
The audit finds 18 of 43 agencies were unaware that the state's Office of Administration had hired two companies to help it identify federal grant opportunities.