The political influences behind the OJJDP scandal.

Rene Fonseca (left) and Stephen Antkowiak (right), Training and Technical Assistance Coordinator, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) for ARC Regional Training in Richmond, Virginia, January 25-26, 2007.

Written by Biloxi
MONTAG, 28 JULI 2008

Department of Justice Inspector General had launched an investigation into OJJDP Administrator J. Robert Flores’ travel and Flores’ hiring Hector Rene Fonseca, a Honduran ex-Colonel. Mr. Flores’ hiring of Mr. Fonseca seems to have lot more political influence connected to the Bush Administration’s entire operation of the faith initiatives.

More on Newsinkling.org. Click here.

Faith, cronyism, fraud in the White House faith-based initiative.

$1.2 million grant was given to Bush's buddy Lisa Trevino Cummins' evangelical youth charity, Victory Outreach, thanks to the improper grant decision making done by OJJDP J. Robert Flores. Much of the corruption within the OJJDP stem from Bush laying in the beginning the foundation of Faith-Based Initatives for political and religious agenda.


Source: LA Times Blog

Here is an excerpt from LA Times blog article that is an eye opener of the push by Bush on Faith-Based Initatives:

At a national conference Thursday [last month], Bush said that the faith-based program had helped millions.

"It does not matter if there is a crescent on your group's wall, a rabbi on your group's board or Christ in your group's name," Bush will say, according to advance excerpts released by the White House. "If your organization puts medicine in people's hands, food in people's mouths or a roof over people's heads, then you are succeeding, and the government should support your work."

"The incident of cronyism removes all doubts that the real mission of the faith-based initiative is to aid the religious right," said Rev. C. Welton Gaddy, the president of Interfaith Alliance, an advocacy group with 185,00 members of 75 different faiths. "Congress needs to exercise greater oversight on this program so that we can avoid scandals like this in the future."

Gaddy is not the first to charge foul. Former White House staffer David Kuo charged that after he left the administration federal funds were funneled to evangelical Christian charities without congressional approval.

And who is David Kuo? Kuo was former Special Assistant to Bush and Deputy Director of the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. There was another White House adviser who resigned because he felt that Bush's assertion of"compassionate conservative" promises were never fulfilled and was used for primarily political purposes. His name is John Dilulio. He wrote a letter in the Esquire magazine. Click here to read his letter:

John Dilulio's Letter

Here is an excerpt of his letter which was interesting:

As one senior staff member chided me at a meeting at which many junior staff were present and all ears, "John, get a faith bill, any faith bill." Like college students who fall for the colorful, opinionated, but intellectually third-rate professor, you could see these 20- and 30-something junior White House staff falling for the Mayberry Machiavellis. It was all very disheartening to this old, Madison-minded American government professor.

Bush White House Pushed $1.2 Million Grant for Former Staffer

Source: ABC News

By MURRAY WAAS and ANNA SCHECTER

June 24, 2008 -- A former top official in the White House's faith-based office was awarded a lucrative Department of Justice grant under pressure from two senior Bush administration appointees, according to current and former DOJ staff members and a review of internal DOJ documents and emails.

The $1.2 million grant was jointly awarded to a consulting firm run by Lisa Trevino Cummins who previously headed Hispanic outreach efforts for the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, and a California evangelical group, Victory Outreach.

The grant was awarded over the strong objections of career DOJ staff who did not believe that Victory Outreach was qualified for the grant and that too great an amount of the funds was going to Cummins' consulting company instead of being spent on services for children.

Cummins' company, Urban Strategies LLC, was slated to get one third of the money for helping the self-described "evangelizing" Victory Outreach use the rest of the funds.

Here is description of Victory Outreach according to Oversight Committee documents:

Mr. Flores awarded a $1.2 million grant to Urban Strategies LLC, a consulting firm based
in Arlington, Virginia, and Victory Outreach Special Services, a church-based group located in San Dimas, California. This application was ranked 42 out of 104 applicants by the peer review team and was listed as "not recommended."

The president of Urban Strategies is Lisa Trevino Cummins. According to the firm's website, Ms. Cummins is "a social entrepreneur who is passionate about building on the strengths of grassroots faith-based organizations to affect change.,,50 The website also states that Ms. Cummins "served in numerous capacities for the White House Office for Faith-Based Initiatives." Under "examples of our work," the firm's website highlights the Department of Health and Human Services' Compassion Capital Fund, stating that Urban Strategies "has been a key architect in the design of this Presidential initiative" and "was contracted to write the Requests for Proposals issued by the federal government.,,

According to its website mission statement, Victory Outreach is a "church-oriented Christian ministry called to the task of evangelizing and discipling the hurting people of the world, with the message of hope and plan of Jesus Christ.”.

The application submitted by Urban Strategies and Victory Outreach explained that Urban Strategies would conduct the oversight ofthe grant, while Victory Outreach would perform the services. Under the award, Urban Strategies would receive 32% of the $1.2 million, or $387,000, under this three-year grant. The application also stated that Kelly Cowles, a program manager at Urban Strategies, would be the program manager under this grant.

According to the firm's website, Ms. Cowles previously served as the program manager for the Compassion Capital Fund under Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson.

In the grant application submitted by Urban Strategies, Ms. Cowles highlighted as relevant experience her work with the Ohio Governor's Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. She stated that Cowles Consulting "[h]elped to develop a comprehensive strategy to design and implement a two-year statewide $22 million initiative called the Ohio Strengthening Families Initiative on behalf of the Ohio Governor's Office.”

Here is the email exchange regarding Victory Outreach receiving grant on pages 12-13 of Oversight Committee documents.