It’s the same CNCS that has hired Michelle Obama’s former chief of staff, Jackie Norris, as national service adviser to ensure -- in her words -- that corporation officials are their “No. 1 cheerleaders.”
It’s the same CNCS that smeared Walpin as “confused” and “disoriented” -- and then sacked the honest, independent watchdog for raising questions on behalf of taxpayers.
And it’s the same CNCS that last month administered a mere slap on the wrist to the largest AmeriCorps program in the nation for massive fiscal mismanagement. As Youth Today, a niche publication that covers the national service sector, reported recently, “CNCS docked the City University of New York (CUNY) $345,700 for this year, reducing its grant from $900,000 to $554,300.”
Walpin had uncovered a raft of grant violations, including criminal background check lapses and “pervasive problems of eligibility, timekeeping and documentation” in an audit earlier this year. He challenged duplicative educational awards of more than $16 million. CUNY refused to return excess funds that it had drawn down, failed to revise procedures to prevent such grant abuse and refused to provide proof documenting that its AmeriCorps participants actually existed.
Walpin advised AmeriCorps’ parent organization, CNCS, to cut off any new funding and reexamine past government funding totaling upward of $75 million. But internal notes from CNCS discussions show that they had more “concern about potential for damage being done” and were irked by the “bad timing” of Walpin’s audits. In the end, the agency settled for cutting its current grant by less than half and keeping CUNY on the dole.
So much for a “new era of responsibility.”
Walpin is suing to get his job back as the Obama political machine takes over the national service juggernaut. It’s a David vs. Goliath, made-for-TV plot line. But when the government-undermining message threatens the White House narrative, it’s not fit for prime time.