New Red Cross emblem hits snag [Israel]

An attempt to end Israel's long isolation from the Red Cross humanitarian movement hit a snag Tuesday as Muslim opponents used procedural moves to block progress at a decisive international conference, delegates said.

The International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, which opened Tuesday and is expected to conclude Wednesday, is being asked to approve changes to meet Israeli demands of almost six decades that it be granted full membership without using the cross or crescent to identify itself.

But Red Cross officials hosting the conference confirmed that the meeting's validity had been challenged. They declined to identify the delegation that filed the motion because the session was being held behind closed doors.

"At the moment we've hit a rock, so things have ground to a halt," said Ian Piper, spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross. He said there was no doubt about the meeting's validity, but said the objection slowed down proceedings because it forced organizers to consult on a response.

The conference is focusing on the addition of an optional, third emblem, a blank, red-bordered square standing on one corner, that could stand alone or frame the Red Shield of David of the Israeli rescue society Magen David Adom.

The vote has been expected to be a largely formal one, as last December the diplomatic conference of the signatories to the Geneva Convention approved Protocol III to the convention recognizing an additional symbol. Two-thirds of the delegates present must approve that decision when it comes to a vote on Thursday, MDA chairman Dr. Noam Yifrach said.

Yifrach said that it would be a historic end to a long struggle that has continued since 1949, when an attempt to admit MDA was rejected by one vote. Israeli ambulances and staffers will continue to bear the Red Star of David symbol with pride, he said. Only on international missions, when necessary, would it be enclosed or accompanied by a red rectangle standing on one end.

Yifrach praised the Foreign Ministry, the US and its American Red Cross for their continued efforts to get MDA official recognition. When admitted to the movement, MDA will be entitled to special funding, expand its humanitarian work abroad, cooperate with other members and improve its rescue services inside Israel, he added.

Some member countries such as Syria, Iran, Yemen and Lebanon have in recent weeks tried to prevent MDA's inclusion in the movement, but "the Americans tell us they are sure it will pass and we will be admitted," the MDA chairman said.

Red Cross cash ‘wasted’ on stars
TIMES ONLINE ^ | March 05, 2006 | Marie Colvin

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-2069970,00.html

THE American Red Cross has come under fire over payments to publicists who recruited stars to add lustre to its image, even as funds ran short for victims of Hurricane Katrina. The controversy could not have come at a worse time for the charity: this Tuesday, it unveils a “celebrity cabinet” of personalities whose glamour will be exploited to attract money, volunteers and donations of blood.

Its critics are unhappy at what they call an inappropriate use of funds. “They’re hoping people will send them money on the basis of celebrity, as opposed to good works and effectiveness,” said Daniel Borochoff, president of the American Institute of Philanthropy, which monitors charities’ finances.

The Red Cross was reported last week to have paid consultants more than $500,000 (£285,000) in three years to recruit stars, pitch its name in Hollywood and promote its chief executive as the face of the charity.

A New York publicist receives $5,000 a month to lure celebrities and polish the charity’s image in Hollywood, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post.

A company in California has been paid $114,000 to get the Red Cross included in story lines for film and television, and a Texas firm of image specialists won a contract for $127,000 to boost the profile of Marsha J Evans, the chief executive, a year before she left with a $780,000 severance package.

The Red Cross defends its spending, insisting monthly payments to the publicist Paul Freundlich have been cost-effective. “His efforts have made a huge impact on the American public in terms of increasing financial donations, volunteers and blood donations,” said Julie Thurmond Whitmer, head of the charity’s Washington office.

The row follows a censure by Congress for diverting contributions for the September 11 emergency to other uses and criticism last week from the Senate finance committee, which is investigating the charity’s slow response to Katrina.

Some of the media sniping seems disingenuous, however. How many news organisations would really have sent reporters to cover the Red Cross’s campaign to vaccinate 13m children in Kenya? They did when Jane Seymour, the actress, went along.

Red Cross Sifting Internal Charges Over Katrina Aid

By STEPHANIE STROM NY TIMES March 24, 2006

The accusations include improper diversion of relief supplies, and officials said some of the actions might have been criminal.

http://www.calnurses.org/media-center/in-the-news/2006/march/page.jsp?itemID=27601341

The American Red Cross, the largest recipient of donations after Hurricane Katrina, is investigating wide ranging accusations of impropriety among volunteers after the disaster.

John F. McGuire, the interim president and chief executive of the Red Cross, and Senator Charles E. Grassley, the Iowa Republican who is chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said some of the actions might have been criminal.

The accusations include improper diversion of relief supplies, failure to follow required Red Cross procedures in tracking and distributing supplies, and use of felons as volunteers in the disaster area in violation of Red Cross rules.

There are no known official estimates of the cash or the value of supplies that might have been misappropriated, but volunteers who have come forward with accusations said the amount was in the millions of dollars. The Red Cross received roughly 60 percent of the $3.6 billion that Americans donated for hurricane relief. Mr. McGuire said the investigation started "a number of weeks ago" and was continuing.

"We're in the middle of this, and we're looking at a range of possible problems," he said, "from issues between a few people that are really nothing other than bad will, to failure to follow good management principles and Red Cross procedures that have caused a lot of waste, to criminal activity."

He said the organization would do everything in its power to hold wrongdoers accountable. "We need to bring this through to the proper and right conclusion," he said. "We owe that to donors and the people who needed our services."

Among the specific problems identified by volunteers were the disappearance of rented cars, generators and some 3,000 of 9,000 air mattresses donated by a private company, as well as the unauthorized possession of Red Cross computer equipment that could be used to add money to debit cards and manipulate databases.

Mr. McGuire said the investigation was being conducted by a team from the Red Cross ethics and compliance department. Because the inquiry is continuing, he said that he could not respond to specific accusations. When it is completed, he said, any finding of criminal activity will be turned over to the law enforcement authorities.

A telephone call to the attorney general's office in Louisiana was not returned, and there was no response to an e-mail message to an official in the Department of Homeland Security who had been contacted by a volunteer looking into the accusations several months ago at the request of the Red Cross.

In interviews over the last two weeks, more than a dozen Red Cross volunteers from around the country described an organization that had virtually no cost controls, little oversight of its inventory and no mechanism for basic background checks on volunteers given substantial responsibility.

Though there was little direct evidence of criminal activity, the volunteers said the magnitude of the missing goods had convinced them that Red Cross operations were being manipulated for private gain.

"I can't find any other reason for what was going on," said Anne Tolmachoff, a volunteer from Louisiana. "Otherwise, it just didn't make any sense."

While the Red Cross has drawn harsh criticism for failures in responding to Hurricane Katrina and for failing to address longstanding governance problems, the concerns raised by volunteers pose new questions about the organization's ability to prevent fraud and theft and protect its resources amid the chaos of a major disaster.

Senator Grassley has threatened to rewrite or revoke the organization's charter if it does not thoroughly overhaul its operations. This is the second time Mr. Grassley has prodded the Red Cross to get its house in order. He first made demands after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, but his effort sputtered as a result of other pressing matters, like the war in Iraq.

"The allegations from Red Cross volunteers are wide-ranging and include possible criminal misconduct," said Mr. Grassley, who in February demanded to know what the Red Cross was doing to address complaints from volunteers. "The Red Cross needs to change its mind-set so it addresses volunteers' concerns swiftly and appropriately, regardless of whether a Senate committee chairman is asking questions."

In one case cited by volunteers, a kitchen manager swapped 300 prepared meals for parking spaces for Red Cross emergency response vehicles without creating any record of the transaction.

"When a swap takes place, those products become untraceable," said Jerome H. Nickerson Jr., a Maryland lawyer who in mid-November was assigned by the Red Cross, as a volunteer, to look into accusations of theft and fraud in the disaster area. "It's the disaster relief equivalent of money laundering."

Mr. Nickerson and his partner in the inquiry, Michael A. Wolters, a security guard from Wisconsin who uncovered wrongdoing during an earlier three-week tour in Texas shortly after Hurricane Katrina, filed a report on Dec. 5 with the safety and security division at Red Cross headquarters. In it, they cited "a breathtaking systematic failure" by senior managers to enforce inventory control procedures and "outright contempt for well-established internal fiscal controls."

But they said the report had been ignored until a reporter for The New York Times began speaking with other volunteers who had seen similar questionable actions.

Mr. McGuire said the organization had pursued every tip about potential wrongdoing and noted that it had an internal hot line, called Concerned Connection, that volunteers could use.

"The vast majority are misconceptions or cases of 'I don't like somebody, so I'm going to say something,' " he said. "The key for us is to know whether we've got a problem in the Red Cross system and procedures, whether we've got well-intentioned people who just wasted stuff or whether we have a criminal problem."

Still, several volunteers said Red Cross managers in the disaster area had pooh-poohed their concerns and intervened to prevent them from documenting the problems they had encountered.

Willie A. Taylor, a volunteer from Michigan who owns a computer business, said he was part of a team that was asked to use a computer system to track every item from the time it was ordered until it was delivered to the end user.

He said the program revealed that roughly half of the "greenies," the requisition forms used to track supplies as they move through the system, could not be reconciled, meaning the supplies could not be accounted for.

"They asked me to do this," Mr. Taylor said, "we came up with a bulletproof process — and then they squashed it when it showed how big the problem was."

Mr. Taylor and others said they suspected that some volunteers were manipulating the flaws in the distribution system for their own benefit.

The Red Cross had 235,000 volunteers working in the hurricane disaster area, more than five times the previous peak of 40,000, and the sheer number wreaked havoc with the normal vetting process, the volunteers said.

For instance, the Red Cross prohibits anyone with a criminal record from working in a disaster area. "We do background checks on our D.S.H.R. volunteers," Mr. McGuire said, referring to the Disaster Services Human Resources division. "But we did not do them on some of our spontaneous volunteers."

Several of those volunteers had criminal records. For example, a volunteer working in the security unit in Baton Rouge, La., Kathleen Collins-Fowler, reported on Nov. 7 that the authorities in New York had issued an arrest warrant for Joe Tominaro, a volunteer then working in New Orleans, on grand larceny charges. According to New York State Department of Corrections records, Mr. Tominaro has twice served prison time for car theft and possession of stolen goods and is on parole.

Yet he signed on as a Red Cross volunteer and opened a distribution center in Marrero, La., without authorization from the Red Cross logistics division, which is in charge of such matters.

He then rang up a $17,936 bill installing eight industrial fans and an evaporative cooler and moving the cooler a week later to another wall. He was given at least $800 in cash and more than $2,000 was loaded onto his staff debit card, according to records included in Mr. Nickerson's and Mr. Wolters's report. The Red Cross gave him 11 cellphones and two automobiles while he was in the disaster area, even though New York had revoked his license.

Mr. Tominaro did not respond to an e-mail message sent to an address listed on his volunteer records.

On Nov. 2, two volunteers reported their concerns about Mr. Tominaro to Gary Niki, a senior official in the security and safety department at headquarters.

A day later, Ms. Collins-Fowler reported, Mr. Niki ordered that Mr. Tominaro's staff card remain active until further notice. It was suspended, however, on Nov. 7.

Another volunteer falsely passed himself off as a New York City police officer, a criminal offense, and was buying equipment for local law enforcement officials using his staff card, according to the report.

Volunteers said the breadth of the misallocation of supplies made them suspect foul play. Every volunteer interviewed had an example of supplies appearing in places where they were not needed or where the distribution point seemed to be ad hoc.

For instance, Robert M. Cooke, a volunteer serving as bulk distribution manager, was baffled to find industrial-size cans of diced chicken at a middle school in New Orleans.

Mr. Cooke said the school was not an official distribution site and the neighborhood around the school lacked utility service, so the likely recipients of the chicken would have no way to cook it, let alone store such large quantities.

"Those cans were supposed to go to Red Cross kitchens, where they could be properly cooked and prepared," he said.

Mr. Taylor similarly was puzzled by the distribution of supplies in Cameron Parish when he was in charge of bulk distribution. "We were giving out bleach, paper towels and mops, but the houses there were devastated," he said. "We should have been giving out wheelbarrows, hacksaws and other repair equipment."

Moreover, Mr. Taylor said, volunteers at the site did not seem to know who the recipients were. "People were driving up and picking up stuff and driving off, and my question was, how do you know that these people live in this area and need what you're giving them?" he said. "They basically shrugged at me."

Mr. Taylor and Mr. Cooke, who do not know each other, said the scope of the disaster, as well as poor training of the volunteers, explained some but not all of the problems they saw.

"It's a really bad system, of course, because you couldn't account for everything, but there was some funny stuff going on, too," Mr. Taylor said. "People were definitely taking advantage of the huge flaws in accountability."

Red Cross Faces Internal Charges of Misappropriation of Hurricane Funds, Goods

March 27, 2006

http://fdncenter.org/pnd/news/story.jhtml?id=137100006

The American Red Cross is investigating wide-ranging accusations of impropriety among volunteers during its response to Hurricane Katrina, the New York Times reports.

The accusations include improper diversion of relief supplies, failure to follow required Red Cross procedures in tracking and distributing supplies, and use of felons as volunteers in the disaster area in violation of Red Cross rules. While there are no official estimates of the value of cash and supplies that might have been misappropriated, Red Cross volunteers who came forward with the accusations put the amount in the millions of dollars. Among the specific problems identified were the disappearance of rented cars, generators, and nearly a third of the nine thousand air mattresses donated by a private company, as well as the unauthorized possession of computer equipment that could be used to add funding to debit cards and manipulate databases.

"We're in the middle of this," said interim Red Cross CEO John F. McGuire, "and we're looking at a range of possible problems, from issues between a few people that are really nothing other than bad will, to failure to follow good management principles and Red Cross procedures that have caused a lot of waste, to criminal activity."

In interviews, more than a dozen volunteers from around the country described an organization that had virtually no cost controls, little oversight of its inventory, and no mechanism to conduct basic background checks on volunteers given substantial responsibility. Similar descriptions were included in a report — assigned by the organization and conducted by a Maryland attorney and a Wisconsin security guard who had previously uncovered wrongdoing in Texas after the hurricane — that cited "a breathtaking systematic failure" by senior managers to enforce inventory-control procedures and "outright contempt" for internal fiscal controls. McGuire said the organization has pursued every tip, and any finding of criminal activity would be turned over to law enforcement authorities. "The vast majority are misconceptions," he added. "The key for us is to know whether we've got a problem in the Red Cross system and procedures...or whether we have a criminal problem."

The organization, which raised $3.6 billion for its hurricane relief efforts last year, has already drawn stern criticism for its uneven response to Hurricane Katrina, most notably from Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-IA), chairman of Senate Finance Committee, who has threatened to revoke the organization's charter if it does not overhaul its operations. "The allegations from Red Cross volunteers are wide ranging and include possible criminal misconduct," Grassley said. "The Red Cross needs to change its mind-set so it addresses volunteers' concerns swiftly and appropriately, regardless of whether a Senate committee chairman is asking the questions."

anti-Semitism in the Red Cross

Bernadine Healy forced out as president of the American Red Cross over anti-Semitism issue

http://www.newyorker.com/talk/content/articles/011224ta_talk_mayer

Last week, Healy offered her own account of what had happened. Working out of a borrowed office in downtown Washington, she said that she had been forced to resign because she had angered the board of governors by moving too aggressively to address what some see as a legacy of anti-Semitism in the Red Cross. "There's no question about it—this was the one that broke the camel's back," she said.

The issue involves the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, which is the Red Cross's international membership body, based in Geneva, and its policy toward the Israeli version of the Red Cross, the Magen David Adom, or the M.D.A. Since 1949, the Israelis, who have only "observer" status with the federation, have been applying for full membership, which would entitle them to vote and to sit on committees. But they have refused to accept as their emblem either the red cross used by most of the world or the red crescent used by Muslim countries, and the international federation has refused to approve the Israelis' use of the Star of David. Federation officials say that approval of a new emblem would require a majority of the member countries to vote to amend the Geneva convention. Given the tensions in the Middle East, that is not likely to happen soon.

No one, including the Israelis, paid much attention to the issue until Healy took over the Red Cross, in September, 1999. Within weeks, she had become an ardent champion of the M.D.A.'s campaign for membership. In her view, the exclusion of Israel was "hurting the American Red Cross." "Many in the Jewish community, and others, found it shocking," she said. "It was reinforcing a sense that many people had had in the past, since the days of the Holocaust, that there is a discriminatory attitude in the Red Cross, whether that is true or not." (The reputation of the international organization was tainted during the Second World War because it continued to recognize the German Red Cross. Red Cross officials failed to acknowledge early reports of Jewish death camps, and declined to classify incarcerated Jews as protected prisoners of war. And, after the war, it provided documentation for Nazi fugitives, such as Josef Mengele—unwittingly, according to the Red Cross.)

"I'm a pre-women's-lib woman," said Healy, a fifty-seven-year-old cardiologist who grew up in an Irish-American household in Queens and was educated at Hunter College High School, Vassar, Harvard Medical School, and Johns Hopkins. "I came into a world in which I saw discrimination. I remember Jewish doctors I trained with being unable to practice outside Jewish hospitals."

Former Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger, whom Healy brought into the Red Cross as a special ambassador on the M.D.A. issue, said last week that his impression was that Healy's championship of the M.D.A. was "the cause" of her being forced out. He went on, "But, totally fortuitously for the Red Cross board, September 11th came along. The board members have done their best to make it look as if they didn't like what she was doing with the money. But she tells me that the board approved everything she did."

Bad Week For The Red Cross

By Reed Irvine March 14, 2002

http://www.the-catbird-seat.net/RedCross.htm

The second week of March started out badly for the American Red Cross. 60 Minutes devoted a segment of its Sunday program to searing criticism of the way in which the organization handles the big bucks it collects ostensibly to provide assistance to victims of major disasters.

That was followed the next day by a blast from the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights. It asked over 100 organizations to drop their support for the American Red Cross because its chapter in Orange County, California, had canceled its invitation to a student choir to perform at a large function the previous day because it was planning to sing a medley consisting of "America the Beautiful," "Prayer of the Children" and "God Bless the U.S.A."

A spokeswoman for the Orange County Chapter explained the cancellation saying, "We wanted songs representative of all races, all creeds. We are not a religious organization. We have to be neutral and impartial in all situations."

The national headquarters in Washington, D.C., supported the cancellation of the invitation, issuing a news release that said, "The dispute was over the music program and has nothing to do with patriotism.... The dispute centers only on our sensitivity to religious diversity and a preference for a music program that would be inclusive and not offend different populations participating in this particular event."

Cherilyn Bacon, the director of the group from the Orange County High School of the Arts that had been invited to sing, had arranged the medley, titling it the "Heroes Trilogy." It was her intention to honor those involved in rescue efforts following the September 11 attacks.

A Red Cross representative objected to the medley, saying the lyrics might be offensive to some of the 400 guests at the annual Volunteer Recognition Awards.

Ms. Bacon told the AP, "We have never had a complaint about the medley. People have cried when they heard it. I think the Red Cross is taking the issue too seriously." They took it so seriously that they disinvited Ms. Bacon's group and substituted another one from the same school, perhaps a group that promised not to sing any songs that used the words "God" or "prayer."

In a news release accompanying his letter asking over 100 groups to withhold support from the American Red Cross, Catholic League President William Donohue said, "The American Red Cross has every right to adopt the platform of political correctness by censoring the free speech of young men and women who want to honor God and country. And we have every right to ask our friends to send the Red Cross an unmistakable message by refusing to donate one more dime to the organization. Our request is being sent to our allies in virtually every faith community. The time to put an end to this anti-religious madness is now."

Apparently the way to get the attention of the American Red Cross is to take an action that threatens its income. With no big stories in the media applying pressure, a lengthy apology was issued by the Orange County Chapter and distributed by national headquarters the same day the Donohue letter went out. It said they "did not intend to hurt or offend anyone," but that it was clear that the judgment they made to exclude certain songs from the Sunday program was a mistake. It concluded, "We want to apologize to the community and to any people who were hurt or disappointed by our actions."

The "60 Minutes" program on the handling of the large donations the Red Cross gets to help victims of major disasters will not help the money roll in. It summarized the tardy disbursal of the $930 million given to the Red Cross to help the families of the 9/11 victims. It showed that it had taken 18 months to disburse the $16 million collected to assist the victims of the huge Red River flood in Minnesota in 1997.

It finished with the Red Cross response to a fire that destroyed many homes in a canyon near San Diego last year. The Red Cross put a photo on its Web site of a woman who lost her home in the fire. It helped raise nearly $400,000, but that woman and others had received no help.

After six months, a group of them met with the woman who heads the San Diego Red Cross chapter to ask how the money had been used. She was paid $309,000 last year, but she gave them no answers.

Both she and the head of the Red Cross national office refused to be interviewed by "60 Minutes."

Disaster Strikes In Red Cross Backyard
Charity Fails To Get A Grip On Criminal Scandals At Local Chapters

July 29, 2002
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/07/29/eveningnews/main516700.shtml

Quote

Critics say the reason the Red Cross has so little control over its chapters is that the chapters are pulling the strings: they collect most of the donations, dominate the national board and resist tighter controls by headquarters.

(CBS) In part one of her report on the American Red Cross, CBS News Correspondent Sharyl Attkisson looks at how the charity is responding to its biggest criminal scandal.

The American Red Cross may be expert at responding to public disasters, but for years it has failed to get a grip on financial disasters at its local chapters.

There's the fundraiser in Louisiana caught padding her own bank account with donations, the manager in Pennsylvania who embezzled to support her crack cocaine habit and the executive in Maryland who forged signatures on purchase orders meant for disaster victims, to name a few.

But the biggest criminal scandal inside the Red Cross surfaced in New Jersey last year. And though it's been kept off the front pages, it ranks among the biggest charity frauds ever.

At the center of the scandal is Joseph Lecowitch, chief executive of the Hudson County Chapter, and his bookkeeper Catalina Escoto.

Escoto allegedly gave herself at least $75,000 in bonuses. All told, prosecutors say the duo stole well over $1 million in Red Cross funds, squandering it on gambling and each other. Escoto pleaded not guilty. Lecowitch died after he was indicted.

"The bookkeeping methods of Mr. Lecowitch and Ms. Escoto leave a lot to be desired," says prosecutor Michael D'Andrea.

The New Jersey fiasco, in which donations and government grants were all stolen, happened right under the nose of Red Cross headquarters. Critics say the reason the Red Cross has so little control over its chapters is that the chapters are pulling the strings: they collect most of the donations, dominate the national board and resist tighter controls by headquarters.

In 1999, Dr. Bernadine Healy was chosen to head the organization. Said to be stunned by what she saw as a cavalier attitude in New Jersey, she wrote a scathing confidential memo to the Red Cross audit committee.

"Many of the controls presumed by you and senior management to be in place are not there," she wrote in a memo dated April 3, 2001. "A routine audit of the Hudson County Chapter … identified financial mismanagement of a potentially criminal nature."

She called reviews by external auditor KPMG "inadequate" because chapters often don't give details of their finances to headquarters.

And in the most telling statement of all: "We cannot assure the accuracy of ... (financial statements) provided to the IRS ... This appears to be a major business and legal risk and would impact many of KPMG's certifications."

KPMG wouldn't comment, but the Red Cross now says the criticism from its then president was way off the mark.

Jack Campbell, the chief financial officer for the Red Cross, denies there have been any problems and says he is satisfied with the financial accountability of chapters over the past three years.

"I think we have an extremely solid system of accountability for our chapters," he says. "Both in terms of financial reporting, internal audits and local guidance and governance."

Regarding the fraud in Hudson Country that allegedly went undetected for years, Campbell says "no control system is perfect."

Dr. Healy, clearly the odd man out in wanting stronger chapter accountability, left the Red Cross last fall. A CBS News contributor, she wouldn't be interviewed for this report. But not long after she raised questions about the chapters' actions, her grave concerns were confirmed; surprisingly by the Red Cross' own auditors.

A report obtained by CBS News highlights some of the trends at local chapters:

"Payroll … inappropriate or incorrect"

"Financial reports ... are not prepared ... or are not accurate"

"Blank checks are accessible ..."

"National disaster contributions are not remitted to national headquarters ..."

Weeks later, the terrorists struck, and the Red Cross rushed special investigative auditors to see what the chapters were doing with the millions in donations pouring in.

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