WashingtonTimes reports author/editor Matthew Vadum has accused the Obama administration of “new evidence of corruption” involving an affiliate of ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now). Cause of Action – a watchdog group – pressed NeighborWorks America, a taxpayer-funded federal nonprofit that funneled more than $26.5 million in federal foreclosure-avoidance money to ACORN Housing, to disclose an internal audit furnished to then-Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, Connecticut Democrat, late last year. The audit found that while ACORN Housing and voter-fraud-accused ACORN are legally separate entities, there were numerous financial transactions and “evidence [of] extensive relationships between both organizations that may undermine claims of an ‘arm’s length relationship’ between them.” ACORN Housing, the audit states, worked closely with ACORN and even subcontracted some of the counseling work to “four ACORN local state chapters.” “We have determined that [ACORN Housing] lacks the accounting capacity to manage the size and complexity of the [foreclosure-avoidance] program funds,” said the audit, dated Dec. 17, 2010. ACORN Housing had poorly trained staff, sloppy accounting procedures, and also violated conflict-of-interest guidelines laid down by the Office of Management and Budget(OMB), the audit said. U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) gave $79,819 to AHCOA Miami on March 1, $300,000 to AHCOA on Aug. 11, and $350,030 to AHCOA Philadelphia on Sept. 2. Vadum’s report describes HUD’s Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Shaun Donovan as a “longtime ACORN ally.“ Acorn Housing changed its name to Affordable Housing Centers of America (AHCOA) about a year ago to avoid the stigma of being associated with ACORN, which was bared from receiving federal funding after undercover videos showing its employees were facilitating child prostitution in 2009.
(Editor’s Note: Matthew Vadum is a senior editor at Capital Research Center and author of “Subversion Inc.: How Obama’s ACORN Red Shirts Are Still Terrorizing and Ripping Off American Taxpayers” from WND Books, 2011)
