For six years, beginning in 2014, the accounting firm for the Southeast Alabama Community Action Partnership warned administrators that the organization was doing a poor job of managing the millions of dollars in taxpayer money it received annually for its poverty-reduction work, including home energy assistance and foster grandparenting.
In 2018, a longtime employee filed a federal complaint alleging that the group spent public money profligately on extravagant travel and for other unauthorized purposes, and that it retaliated against employees who questioned its financial practices.
Although the case was dismissed upon agreement by both parties, the U.S. Department of Justice fined the Alabama nonprofit $30,000 last year for fiscal failures, including keeping federal money “even after being told by its outside accountant that it needed to return those funds to the United States.”…