CNCS Statement on Recent OIG Investigation
The Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) issued the following statement regarding an investigation by the agency’s Office of the Inspector General. Please attribute to CNCS spokesperson Samantha Jo Warfield.
“We are deeply disappointed that the National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC) authorized national service participants to perform prohibited activities. Although the Office of the Inspector General’s (OIG) investigation concluded the misconduct occurred on an extremely limited scope, the grantee broke the law and violated the spirit of national service.
More than 950,000 Americans have served in AmeriCorps over the last 21 years. They are a testament to how national service brings us together and provides individuals of all backgrounds more opportunities to connect with one another and give back to their communities and their country. CNCS awards competitive grants to faith-based groups and community nonprofits to run programs where national service members address our nation’s toughest problems like the high-school dropout rate, substance abuse, and veterans’ homelessness. In addition, AmeriCorps members have responded to nearly 200 disasters in just the last five years.
The laws governing national service participants’ activities are important to ensure the mission and spirit of national service is fulfilled. That is why Congress prohibited certain activities such as voter registration, protests or labor union organizing, abortion services, and religious proselytizing. CNCS is overwhelmingly clear with its grantees about what activities are prohibited, and we hold our grantees accountable for ensuring that members do not engage in these activities while they are serving.
CNCS worked closely with the OIG to ensure the prohibited activities stopped immediately and were fully investigated. The OIG investigation determined that the prohibited activity was limited in scope, involving only one of the 34 community health networks and only six of the nearly 1,600 members who served with NACHC during its current grant cycle.
In response to the OIG investigation, CNCS imposed tough and detailed reforms to protect the integrity of the national service program and to hold the grantee fully accountable. At CNCS’s direction, NACHC will engage a person to serve as its independent oversight monitor—at NACHC’s own expense—to oversee the grantee’s compliance. Among other measures, CNCS also suspended NACHC’s ability to enroll any new national service members under its grant.
Moving forward, we will continue to build on the public’s strong support for AmeriCorps members who are transforming lives in rural areas, tribal communities, and large cities in 15,000 locations across the country, and unifying citizens behind a common purpose that reflects our country’s highest ideals.”