KEYSPOT effort unaffected by recent Urban Affairs Coalition funding freeze

A state agency froze funds to local nonprofit and KEYSPOT digital access initiative partner the Urban Affairs Coalition (UAC) following a confidential audit that found that the nonprofit was mismanaging funds, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported last week. But the nonprofit’s KEYSPOT initiatives remain unaffected by the freeze, said Arun Prabhakaran, the UAC’s Director of Government & Strategic Partnerships.

UAC manages the sustainable broadband adoption training arm of the Nutter administration’s federally-funded KEYSPOT effort [find our previous coverage here].

The audit focuses on $1.5 million that UAC received in grants from the state’s Department of Community & Economic Development (DCED). DCED has frozen funds to UAC, though a spokesman would not elaborate on the freeze, the Inquirer reported. Read the whole article here.

DCED funding makes up a small portion of the funds that UAC has managed — specifically six percent of the $390 million in funds that UAC has managed since 1999. [Updated, see below]

UAC has not received a copy of the audit leaked to the Inquirer, despite repeated requests, according to an official statement in response to the Inquirer article from UAC president Sharmain Matlock-Turner. Lacking any context, UAC will not respond to the allegations made in the audit, Matlock-Turner wrote.

“It is tempting to respond to these accusations; it is painful not to,” she wrote. “We must have a copy of the report so that we can respond to the inaccuracies in the article, review all charges and respond in detail.”

Read the whole statement here.