Tag Archives: accountability

This tax season, nonprofit organizations will, for the first time, be required to undergo what K&L Gates health care attorney Ed Weisgerber describes as a “corporate endoscopy”:

If the hospital has affiliated for-profit businesses, the IRS wants to know about them in detail. Do the executives fly first-class on business trips„ There’s a place for reporting that information. If two board members have a 10 percent stake in the same business, the IRS wants to know that, too — even if the business has nothing to do with the hospital. More people will have to disclose their salaries.

And the form will grow yet again a year from now, as hospitals will then have to fill out a special Schedule H to document exactly what “community benefit” they contribute to justify their tax-exempt status.

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A letter to the New York Times details another reason why accountability is critical for good government: the retention of talented career public servants.

“…the biggest reason to pursue accountability: the morale of current and future career employees of the very agencies so poorly served by most government officials for most of the last eight years… For all the fickle revolving-door political appointments that… departments have had to endure… nothing so demeans worthy men and women as the abrogation of trust.
People of character will not choose to subject themselves to personal and professional debasement when they have no faith in the integrity of the offices we ask them to serve.”

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America has entered an era of government expenditure unheard-of since the 1960s, if not the 1930s, yet its cash reserves are lower than ever. The New York Times reports that China is losing its taste for U.S. debt, cutting off one huge supply of easy credit that fueled the massive expansion of government after September 11th. Obama warned of a trillion-plus dollar deficit accumulating from this expansion and the ongoing effort to stimulate the economy — a burden he believes the American people will be unwilling to bear “unless we take extraordinary steps to ensure that the investments are made wisely and managed well.” How will we recognize “wisely and … well”„

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This past week, five area community foundations released a 28-page joint report entitled The Recession’s Impact on the Safety Net in Ohio and Pennsylvania. The result of a two-month study, the report was in part written using data generated by Rhiza Community Catalog. These data are publicly available under “Community Profiles” on HumanServices.net, an online tool implemented in partnership with 3rc that uses Catalog to simplify intake, referral, and analysis of community services. NeighborAid, an emergency fund for community organizations facing budget crises resulting from the economic downturn, has also begun to use HumanServices.net to refer local residents to social service providers.

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In June 2008, Senators Barack Obama and John McCain collaborated on a groundbreaking bill to post the full text of all federal contracts with private agencies online for public review. Senate Bill 3077, the Strengthening Transparency and Accountability in Federal Spending Act of 2008, died in committee and was stricken from the books when the 111th Congress met earlier this week. Meanwhile, just as S.B. 3077 was wiped from memory, a cascade of government-related financial fiascos began. New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson declined appointment as Secretary of Commerce amid allegations that his administration improperly awarded a contract to a California consulting firm. Read more »