[nfbmi-talk] (no subject)

[Terry D. Eagle]

Remove the Source America name and one would believe the article was about
the BS4BP Business Enterprise Program providing jobs to sighted persons and
agency management earning $104,000 a year, or Peckham Industries passport
call center hiring non-disabled persons as persons with disabilities.  It is
all a fraud game, for which no monitoring or accountability is done by the
government watchsdogs charged with those mandates.  The watchman is likely
being bought off too! government contract.

-----Original Message-----
From: nfbmi-talk [mailto:nfbmi-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Martha
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Sent: Tuesday, August 04, 2015 10:57 AM
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Cc: Martha Moore
Subject: [nfbmi-talk] (no subject)

 Sharing an article - hope it can be read......
Agency Employing People With Disabilities Under Investigation Amid Fraud,
Corruption Allegations
Published August 4, 2015By Kaitlyn D’OnofrioThe Department of Justice has
launched an investigation into SourceAmerica and the AbilityOne program it
oversees. The news comes just days after the 25-year anniversary of the
signing of the ADA.SourceAmerica is a national nonprofit that was
established to oversee and implement AbilityOne, which was created in 1938
and trains and employs individuals with severe disabilities or who are
blind.According to CNN, “illegal operations, financial fraud, mismanagement,
operating in violation of the law, steering of contracts, and possibly
obstruction of justice” are all among the charges being
investigated.Companies under contract with AbilityOne pledge that at least
75 percent of their employees have a severe disability and would be unable
to work in a traditional job. An estimated $3 billion of taxpayer’s money
goes to AbilityOne per year, and this money is supposed to fund these
contracts. Supposedly, however, half of the companies in these contracts do
not meet the required percentage of employees with severe
disabilities.AbilityOne is supposed to approve which companies receive these
contracts, but sources have now come forward explaining that this doesn’t
happen. More often than not, AbilityOne simply goes with the companies
referred to them by SourceAmerica.According to Rich Beutel, former
congressional investigator, “The contracts are now being funneled to a very
small group of 10 large companies that are getting way more than their fair
share.”Beutel, who now lobbies for a company that is suing SourceAmerica,
explained that SourceAmerica officials actually have connections to the
companies receiving these contracts in many instances.“So [then] you have
actual advisers and board members in these private organizations who are
themselves business owners; and so they can award themselves potentially
contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars,” he said. “It’s a perfect
setup for waste and abuse.”In a statement to CNN, SourceAmerica insisted it
follows up and takes appropriate action when necessary:
On average, SourceAmerica staff annually visits nearly 200 of the roughly
500 nonprofit agencies with active AbilityOne contracts to provide training
and technical guidance to ensure that every organization with an AbilityOne
contract receives the necessary amount of support to meet their contractual
requirements. As such, every nonprofit agency with an AbilityOne contract
receives an on-site visit at least once every three years, with more
frequent visits depending on individual circumstances. SourceAmerica staff
does not determine compliance; only the U.S. AbilityOne Commission is
authorized to do so.
According to several sources, however, neither SourceAmerica nor AbilityOne
follow up with the companies who receive contracts to make sure they
actually have the required number of severely disabled employees. Mary Joan
Willard is the executive director of the Boston location for NTI, a company
formerly under contract with AbilityOne. According to Willard, NTI lost its
contract to Peckham Industries, a company which she states does not maintain
the mandatory 75 percent.“[AbilityOne’s] definition of ‘verified’ is they
look at a piece of paper that Peckham has signed saying, ‘We are in
compliance 
 these people are severely disabled.’ And that, to me, is not
verification,” said Willard.Another source, who wished to remain anonymous
but is a former hiring manager at a company who received many AbilityOne
contracts, corroborated Willard’s explanation.“The majority of the
individuals that were being hired were not severely disabled,” said the
source. “I would say in my experience in the AbilityOne contracts that I
worked on, maybe 10 to 20 percent were truly severely disabled; they truly
did not have the ability to find gainful employment elsewhere. Everybody
else — they were capable of finding employment elsewhere.”And, to the
source’s knowledge, there was never any follow-up from SourceAmerica or
AbilityOne to verify this: “As long as you have a report that says 75% of my
staff is disabled, there’s no other checking,” the source
explained.Supposedly, the only way to know if companies are not meeting
their requirements is through their own reports to SourceAmerica — and
companies rarely report their own shortcomings. Even in the cases when they
did, though, no legal action was taken against the companies.According to
SourceAmerica’s statement, “SourceAmerica places a high value on integrity
and has zero tolerance for any actions that undermine our ability to create
more employment opportunities for people with disabilities.” AbilityOne
refused to speak about the matter, citing pending litigation.

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