Career Training Information Blog -

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Federal authorities are investigating another Illinois state grant initiative, this one a job-training program run by an administrator who was fired for mismanagement but has returned to work with back pay and a raise, The Associated Press has learned.

Deveda Francois was dismissed from a $ 72,400 job at the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity in February 2011 after the agency alleged she distributed confidential information and pressured grant recipients on hiring, according to a review of state documents and interviews by the AP and the Better Government Association.

But an arbitrator ordered the department to rehire Francois. Just weeks earlier, the U.S. attorney in central Illinois demanded records from four organizations that got money from the Employment Opportunities Grant Program, according to a subpoena obtained by the AP and the government watchdog group.

“Unfortunately, we were forced to take her back and we don’t have the option of appeal,” DCEO spokeswoman Kelly Jakubek said.

Francois is now working in the agency’s business development office and has no involvement in state grants, Jakubek said. The former administrator did not return message……….. continues on Belleville News Democrat.