Nonprofit Formed to Help Veterans Wasted Large Sum, Senate Report Says
http://www.veteranscorp.org/
By Ann Scott Tyson, Washington Post Staff Writer, Thursday, December 11,
2008; A06
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/10/AR2008121003
984_pf.html
A nonprofit veterans group has "squandered" hundreds of thousands of dollars
of the $17 million in federal funds it has received since 2001 and
essentially abandoned its mission of helping veterans start small
businesses, according to the results of a Senate investigation to be
released today.
The National Veterans Business Development Corp., also known as the Veterans
Corp. (TVC), grossly mismanaged taxpayer dollars -- including lavish
spending on costly dinners and luxury hotels, first-class travel, and
compensation for its top two executives that amounted to nearly a quarter of
the charity's federal funds, according to a report obtained by The
Washington Post.
Created in 1999 to set up a national network of veterans centers and help
veterans start small businesses, TVC has spent only 15 percent of its
funding on the centers since it was formed, including only 9 percent last
year, the investigation found. As a result, centers in Massachusetts,
Michigan and Missouri are in danger of closing, it said.
"It's appalling that an organization created to aid our nation's heroes
would instead squander taxpayer dollars, wining and dining their executives
instead of helping veterans," Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), chairman of the
Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, said in a
statement. Kerry launched the investigation with the committee's ranking
Republican, Sen. Olympia J. Snowe (Maine).
Kerry and Snowe recommended that TVC receive no more federal funds and that
instead the funding go to the Small Business Administration's Office of
Veterans Business Development.
"It is deeply regrettable that The Veterans Corporation squandered the
well-intentioned efforts of so many to create a national veteran
entrepreneurship network," Snowe said in a statement. "I am confident that,
with sufficient funding, the Small Business Administration can more
efficiently and effectively oversee valuable veteran entrepreneurship
programs and centers."
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SHAME on all of those involved veterans need real help and assistance in opening small businesses and these frauds are wasting federal funds on trips and food bills BS, jail them for fraud.
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Nonprofit Formed to Help Veterans Wasted Large Sum, Senate Report Says
