Congressional Vets Group Wastes Taxpayer Money

The Washington Post reports on a recent Senate investigation showing that a group created by Congress to help veterans start small businesses has wasted 91% of its money on unreleated expenses:

A nonprofit veterans group has "squandered" hundreds of thousands of dollars of the $17 million in federal funds it has received since 2001 and essentially abandoned its mission of helping veterans start small businesses, according to the results of a Senate investigation to be released today.

The National Veterans Business Development Corp., also known as the Veterans Corp. (TVC), grossly mismanaged taxpayer dollars -- including lavish spending on costly dinners and luxury hotels, first-class travel, and compensation for its top two executives that amounted to nearly a quarter of the charity's federal funds, according to a report obtained by The Washington Post.

The reports says that Veterans Corp has spent just 9% of its funding on the small business centers that it was founded to create. Veterans Corps is a not a grassroots veterans organization, but a Congressionally-created non-profit group. The VFW has called for cutting all federal funding for Veterans Corp, and redirecting that money directly to the Small Business Administration's veterans programs.