ROCKFORD, Ill. (WTVO) — Illinois State Comptroller Susana Mendoza came to Rockford to talk about wage theft on public construction jobs on March 15th.

Project First Rate hosted a public construction workshop with about 100 industry professionals, elected officials and local government leaders taking part.

attendees were given up-to-date information on policies and laws when it comes to projects involving taxpayer dollars. Mendoza said her office’s main focus is ensuring that wage theft is not taking place on public works jobs.

“If we find that someone is cheating workers out of these state law payments then my office will stop funding that project until an investigation is completed,” said Mendoza. “If the individual entity is found to be in violation of preventing wage then we will hold payments until every penny that is owed those workers gets paid back to those workers that have been cheated out of their wages.”

The comptroller said her office has already enforced this tool on multiple projects.