[
The Washington Post is reporting Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden and some better-known national public officials have served on the board of directors of a nonprofit organization which sought to understate rather than fully expose and prosecute high-dollar thefts from the organization. The organization is the American Legacy Foundation.
The WaPo’s articles are headlined Inside the hidden world of thefts, scams, and phantom purchases at the nation’s nonprofits, and Non-profit groups often seek restitution, not prosecution, when money goes missing.
To take action would probably be viewed as ‘bad’ publicity tending to indicate that all was not well in the non-profit. Like real estate–location, location,location, non-profits are generally–appearances, appearances, appearances.
Comment by up river — November 27, 2013 @ 10:48 am
up river,
Yes, but at some point “maintaining appearance” morphs into “intentional deception.” And that’s when the organic fertilizer hits the spinning impeller.
Comment by Bill — November 27, 2013 @ 11:19 am
I continue to question the City of Coeur d’Alene’s transferring the title of publicly owned lands to the Parks Foundation, a non-profit. Publicly owned lands are owned by the citizens not a foundation. Actually, no public entity should be permitted to transfer publicly owned property to any non-profit.
Comment by Susie Snedaker — November 27, 2013 @ 4:49 pm
Susie,
In my opinion, the biggest danger of any public transfer of any asset to a private entity is that it circumvents the public records and open meetings laws designed to tell the public how its money is being used. Putting a wall between the information about the money and the people who provided it is the function of money laundering.
Comment by Bill — November 27, 2013 @ 6:20 pm
I agree, That is another reason why I am a skeptic when the issue of public/private partnerships is raised. It seems to me that the issue is raised when the private sector covets something owned by the public.
Comment by Susie Snedaker — November 27, 2013 @ 7:41 pm