Reports: Investigations

This investigation was initiated based on hotline allegations from an anonymous complainant who reported staff displacement, inaccurate timekeeping and lack of supervision at the AmeriCorps program.

A hotline call alleged that Senior Corps management with the Central County United Way (CCUW), Hemet, CA, were inflating volunteer service hours, assigning volunteer service activities outside the scope of the grant and displacing staff.

CNCS-OIG received hotline allegations that AmeriCorps members assigned to the Detroit Parent Network (DPN) Project Graduation AmeriCorps Program, Detroit, MI, were assigned service activities outside the scope of the grant and had displaced DPN staff as employees.

The United States District Attorney’s Office, District of Rhode Island (USAO), Providence, RI, found that Mr. Charles Denno, former Finance Director, The Providence Plan (ProvPlan), Providence, RI, an AmeriCorps grantee, embezzled over $500,000, in agency funds, during a check writing and forgery scheme between 2012 and 2016.

CNCS management alerted CNCS-OIG of an allegation concerning Prohibited Abortion Activity directed by an AmeriCorps grantee employee with the International Institute of Metropolitan St. Louis (IISTL), St Louis, MO.

CNCS-OIG completed its investigation into hotline allegations that VISTA members (VISTA) assigned to Programa de Apoyo y Enlace Comunitaro (PAEC), Rincon, PR, were directed to perform duties ordinarily performed by a paid employee.

Corporation management reported VISTA Project Sponsor Georgia Center for Nonprofits (GCN), Atlanta, GA, improperly utilized its VISTA members when it directed members to perform staff functions and changed clients for their services.

A hotline complainant reported that members serving with the St. Bernard Project (SBP), Wall Township, NJ, were unsupervised, falsely reporting service hours, and working in unsafe working conditions.

CNCS management reported that it discovered anomalies with the National Service Participants (NSP) accounts in the National Service Trust (NST) database in which AmeriCorps members had been enrolled in Teach for America (TFA) Idaho and Chicago AmeriCorps programs between Grant Years (GY) 2013 - 2017 under multiple NSP accounts with different Social Security Numbers.

CNCS management discovered a temporary CNCS employee hired to serve as a panel member for the 2016 AmeriCorps State and National Grant Review process submitted work products that appeared to have been plagiarized from her follow panel reviewers.