Barbara Day, the US State Department Office of Population, Refugees and Migration (PRM) Domestic Resettlement Section Chief, in a letter Wednesday, said PRM would be reviewing the three major contractors resettling refugees to Massachusetts when they make their plans for FY2014 (which happens very soon as FY’14 begins October 1).
When you read this consider that Barbara Day came to the State Department from Lutheran Social Services of South Dakota (a subcontractor of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services, one of the three agencies she will be reviewing).
This is another example of the close ties between the grantors and the grantees. As we have reported many times on these pages, the Director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement in Health and Human Services (Eskinder Negash) is also a former contractor. I am sure they are honorable people, but there really should be a law against contractors becoming the federal grantor to their former organization.
***Update*** How could I forget that the Asst. Secretary of State for PRM, Anne Richard, is also a former contractor!
Here is Day’s letter, and by the way, she is the person you should contact at the State Department if you have problems in your city!
This news (and the copy of the letter) was reported in The Republican which has been doing a great job following this story. Read the whole informative article. This little segment (below) caught my eye because it shows what a large percentage of the money allotted to refugees goes to the “church” middlemen to run the operation.
I have said on these pages that these middlemen contractors (faux non-profits) should be shut out of the process and if a state agrees to resettle refugees it should be done through a state office COMPLETELY ACCOUNTABLE TO ELECTED OFFICIALS AND TAXPAYERS.
Here is what caught my eye:
Lutheran Social Services received $1,238,200 in refugee resettlement and refugee services funding in Hampden County in fiscal 2013. Of that amount, $362,500 goes directly to clients [refugees—ed] and $875,700 goes for operating the services, a spokeswoman said.
A significant portion of the funds, however, is not only for newly arriving refugees but for all refugees served, some for up to five years, the spokeswoman said. The grants include funding for services such as case management, education and employment efforts, according to a summary.
If you are arriving here for the first time, you can review all of our coverage of the controversy in Springfield, Massachusetts by clicking here.