Inspector General Slams ACORN Spin-off, but Will it Matter?

ACORN may be renamed and rebranded but a new government report details how the organization is up to its same old corrupt practices.

According to Fox News:

An official report released [last] week says an ACORN offshoot group cannot properly account for how it has spent millions of federal dollars and recommends that the group repay the government and be put on standby mode until it cleans up its act.

The report from the inspector general for the Department of Housing and Urban Development reviewed how ACORN Housing Corporation — now called Affordable Housing Centers of America (AHCOA) — has spent federal grant money over the past two decades. The report described the group’s book-keeping as “problematic and unsupported,” and claimed that more than $65,000 in “ineligible” salary expenses were charged to a federal grant last year, including costs for six employees after they were terminated.

(You can read the inspector general’s report in its entirety here.)

Overall, 80% of taxpayer funds distributed to ACORN in 2008 and 2009 were used to pay salaries — even for employees who no longer worked for the organization! That’s right, in a response letter to the inspector general’s office, a representative of the new ACORN spin-off said the organization “does not dispute” the fact that it “erroneously charged” the federal government (read: taxpayers) for employees who had been terminated.

Now, you may be asking yourself: Didn’t the Senate already vote to cut off housing funds for ACORN after videos surfaced last year depicting ACORN workers providing advice on purchasing a house to run as a brothel for underage, illegal alien girls? And didn’t the House of Representatives cut off all funding? And didn’t a federal appeals court rule last month that the government’s ACORN funding bans were legally permissible?

Yes, to all three questions. But apparently all it takes is a name change and a fresh coat of paint for ACORN to remain in the Obama administration’s good graces. And apparently, even with these latest findings, ACORN might still have an opportunity to misuse taxpayer funds.

The inspector general only suggested a temporary suspension of future HUD grants:

“We recommended that Single Family’s Program Support Division consider placing AHCOA in ‘inactive’ status while it initiates corrective actions to address the exceptions and recommendations in the report…”

More federal taxpayer dollars could be waiting if the ACORN offshoot is able to repay some of the funds and bring its operations into “full compliance with applicable laws.”

You may recall Judicial Watch already has a lawsuit filed against HUD to obtain documents regarding these ACORN grants. We found it extremely suspicious that the government continued to fund the ACORN Housing Corporation despite its corrupt activities. We still do.

Instead of slapping ACORN on the wrist, the Obama Department of Justice should immediately initiate a full investigation of ACORN and all of its rebranded affiliates. Of course, given the fact that ACORN is “working for the Democratic Party,” I would not expect any investigations from this administration anytime soon.