Relief organizations such as the American Red Cross contribute to the response efforts following natural disasters, terror attacks, economic turmoil and other generally horrible situations.
Millions rely on the food and shelter services as well as the long-term assistance these groups provide all over the world. Many communities would not be able to bounce back from disaster or simply function without the support of the Red Cross workers—approximately 95 percent of whom are volunteers.
The work these agencies do is invaluable and dependent on donations of time, money and blood to function. Following the 2005 hurricane season, the Red Cross was reported to have received an estimated $2.14 billion—enough to cover the entire cost for Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma.
Yet the Red Cross is once again under controversy—this time for misdirected funds in the Hurricane Katrina response, as a Senate investigation concludes. One instance of the injustice is the 1,500 meals per day reportedly ordered for areas supposedly without access to supplies. Only 500 of these meals were handed out to areas that seemed to have returned to their pre-Katrina glory.
The investigation has resulted in the release of thousands of internal documents about how the Red Cross has handled itself. One example is an email sent by a board member to the chairman David McLaughlin following Sept. 11, 2001, which read, The worst thing we could do is to gloss over the split on the board, make some superficial changes in governance and see the whole scenario repeated three or four years from now.\ A slap on the wrist will not cut it this time.
Two key supervisors have already been dismissed, and, as the investigation continues, more layoffs are expected. It is very doubtful that only two people knew of such gross deceit.
This is not the first time the Red Cross has been under investigation for mishandling its donations. Following 9/11, it received $1.072 billion, promising to give all of the money directly to the victims of that tragic day. However, it was later decided that approximately $850 million of that money would be spent on administrative infrastructure.
Later in court, it admitted to the error in judgment and went on to honor the original pledge only after called out for its misguidance. This was worse than unacceptable. It was offensive to everyone that tried to help following the single greatest attack on domestic soil. Even after admitting its fault, the latest accusations are no better.
The Red Cross claims that they are committed to preventing fraud with their self-declared ""zero-tolerance policy"" toward people asking for help that do not appear to need it. Evidently, this does not include its own internal fraud.
It is imperative for the Red Cross to fess up to their wrongdoings, rectify the damage and discontinue this pattern of dishonesty.
If accusations of illegal activity continue to plague the organization, benefactors will not be willing to support it. It would be an unfortunate consequence of negligent behavior for the Red Cross to experience a drop in donations. The work it does for millions of people is priceless. Without it, many would have nowhere to turn.
The Red Cross needs to get its act together before it is too late.
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