A statement from the New York City Department of Investigation exposes widespread problem among nonprofit organizations that provide services to the city’s homeless shelters.
The report cites “hundreds of leadership and compliance issues”, including raised salaries due to tax funds pouring into the nonprofit’s coffers, conflicts of interest, the choosing of community members, and failures to accept regulations such as non-competitive buying on contracts.
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The statement has no connection to the comprehensive investigation of” city deals and the possibility of control hawking and fees” among Mayor Eric Adams ‘ administration officials by the federal and state governments.
Prevention is essential when protecting the large taxpayer resources that city-funded organizations receive, according to DOI Commissioner Jocelyn Strauber in a statement. ” City-funded nonprofit service providers pose unique compliance and governance risks, and comprehensive city oversight is the best way to stop corruption, fraud, and waste before it starts” . ,
The “unique conformity and governance threats” indicate that those in charge of these organizations are livid.
The Department of Social Services claims that it is improving significantly and did correct every problem. Promise!
” We take every instance of noncompliance very really,” according to DSS director Neha Sharma, who added that the agency has completely stopped doing business with a number of companies highlighted in the report, improved our policies and practices for billing evaluation, and strengthened our strong assessment and accountability systems.
If the “audit and transparency methods” are thus “robust”, why all the problem?
One instance given in the document was Black Veterans for Social Justice, a company that has reportedly employed its CEO’s kids since at least 2007. However, the firm lied in a questionnaire to the DOI, claiming that, in the report, there were no immediate family members of senior staff or committee members.  ,
A monitorship partnership is now in place for the business.  ,
According to the report, South Bronx Overall Economic Development Corporation, another company, South Bronx Overall Economic Development Corporation, poorly employed at least five cousins of older people, including the kids and cousin of the nonprofit’s executive producer. The city is no longer doing business with them, according to a Department of Social Services spokesman.
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One shelter provider, SEBCO Development, purchased security services from a company owned by the nonprofit. This allowed SEBCO executives to receive two salaries from the nonprofit that is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars and the taxpayer-funded security company.
DHS-funded shelters host around 86, 000 people every night, racking up$ 4 billion in spending in fiscal year 2024— up from$ 2.7 billion annually in fiscal year 2022, according to the report. This is largely attributable to the influx of asylum seekers who are settling in New York.
The report did not include city-funded emergency migrant contracts.  ,
Mayor Adams was criticized by city comptroller and mayoral candidate Brad Lander for not implementing oversight and safeguards sooner.
” DOI’s latest 100-page investigation underlines the Adams administration’s failure to implement any of the anti-corruption recommendations from DOI’s 2021 report”, Lander said in a statement. ” If the mayor continues to fail to implement these common-sense recommendations, further eroding public trust in our local government, then the City Council must take action” . ,
How much of that$ 4 billion is wasted or stolen? Finding that out is beyond the purview of a small investigative body within a city government. New York State must start putting people in jail for their crimes and conduct an investigation into the corruption and malfeasance.
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