Readers there are nine volags (supposedly volunteer agencies) contracted by the federal government to resettle refugees. Presently the National Security Council (NSC) is “reforming” the State Department’s Refugee Resettlement Program.* In my recommendations for reform, here, I said there needs to be put in place requirements for financial audits of the nine volags and their 300 plus subcontractors.
Here is an update on a blogger who has been documenting some apparently funny-money business in the Episcopal Church USA. I first wrote about the story here in January. He suggests that the church is staying afloat with money from the federal government—the State Department and the Department of Health and Human Services for the refugee program.
I’m not an accountant so I can’t make a judgement (and I get lost in the numbers), but neither can the general public concerned about the proper use of their tax dollars, so we need periodic financial audits of federal refugee contractors.
This is from the blog, DCNY, here:
For those who are new to these ECUSA numbers, I shall repeat what I said in my earlier post with regard to ECUSA’s taking money from the United States Government (actually, the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement):
ECUSA? Getting federal money? Yes — the Government is the second largest source of ECUSA revenues, after diocesan contributions, and is now even greater than ECUSA’s income from investments. They are called “EMM Revenues,” for “Episcopal Migration Ministries.” Essentially, the Government pays ECUSA to assist in finding homes for refugee families. ECUSA is one of ten official [actually, now nine] “resettlement agencies” recognized by the federal Government, and accounts for settling between 2500 to 3500 individuals per year via a network of thirty offices in twenty-six of the 96 domestic dioceses.
Is this any way to run a church, let alone a railroad? I shall repeat what I said as I concluded my earlier post, edited slightly to take the year-end actual figures into account:
Overall . . . ECUSA’s public finances are a disgrace. It is surviving only by slashing to the bone its entire raison d’être at the national level (remember, it created the “Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society” to be able to accept charitable gifts for its mission as a national religious organization). It is as dependent on revenues from the government each year as it is on income from investing all of the gifts made to it over the past one hundred and sixty years. . . .
Incidentally, ECUSA’s federal dole is chump-change compared to the federal funds (your taxes!) received by the US Conference of Catholic Bishops! Is the federal government keeping afloat the lobbying arm of the Catholic Church too?
* Actually I don’t think the White House has the authority to reform the program, that responsibility rests with Congress. This is just a creeping Executive Branch power grab and if it were George Bush (or any Republican President) reforming the program there would be an outcry from the pro-immigration media!