Veterans Group Falls Short, Wasted Money
Expense account dinners, first class travel, luxury hotels and top pay. Sounds nice, right?
That's how a nonprofit veterans group "squandered" federal funding it received to help veterans start small businesses.
A Senate investigative report said the group, the National Veterans Business Development Corp., aka Veterans Corp, spent just 9 percent of its budget last year on the small business centers it was supposed to start and run.
The Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, which conducted the review, called for the group's funding to cease.
"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," committee chairman Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) was quoted as saying by a story in The Post.
After the report's release, the Veterans of Foreign Wars joined the committee in calling for a cut in funding.
"The VFW wants TVC's funding redirected to expand veteran-specific programs within the Small Business Administration, and for the federal government to incorporate TVC business centers into its Veterans Business Outreach Center network. The Small Business Administration, unlike TVC, is subject to congressional oversight and accountability, and with 1,500 small business development centers across the country, it is more capable of reaching out and working with veterans."
Veterans Group Falls Short, Wasted Money
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Fraud charges should be pursued, the people in charge of this mess defrauded the govt and short changed the veterans they were supposed to be helping. Put them in the Army and send them to the border region in Afghanistan.
Monday, December 15, 2008
Veterans Group Falls Short, Wasted Money
