ACORN, calling the actions of some of its employees "indefensible," has suspended advising new clients as part of its service programs and is setting up an independent review to see what happened.ACORN chief executive Bertha Lewis said in a written statement that she was "ordering a halt to any new intakes into ACORN's service programs until completion of an independent review." The actions were taken, she said, "as a result of indefensible action of a handful of our employees."
Videos of ACORN workers giving tax advice to people posing as prostitutes and other revelations have led to growing criticism of the organization in recent days.
Lewis continued: "We have all been deeply disturbed by what weve seen in some of these videos. I must say, on behalf of ACORN's Board and our Advisory Council, that we will go to whatever lengths necessary to reestablish the public trust. For nearly forty years, ACORN has given voice to communities, and gotten results. Right now, our nearly 500,000 member
| Excuse me? What other corporation has that kind of a payroll?!? Mr. Wife's employer manages to maintain their position on the Fortune 500 with a little more than one fourth of that, last I heard. |
ACORN, an advocacy group, has fired at least four employees after hidden camera videos showed the group's workers giving financial advice to women posing as prostitutes. The firings occurred in the group's Washington and Baltimore offices.
ACORN has been targeted for years by conservative groups that consider it a sometimes unsavory arm of Democratic electoral politics. The Senate voted earlier this week to deny funding to the organization to help with the next census.
ACORN stands for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. It advocates for poor people. It conducted a large voter registration effort last year and some employees were accused of submitting false registration forms with names such as "Mickey Mouse." ACORN has said only a handful of employees submitted false registration forms.
| Of their half a million employees some presumed-to-be small number file numerous false forms -- a federal felony -- and some other presumably small number (we hope not the same ones) demonstrate willingness to aid and abet felonious behaviour. Were I in charge, we would put all operations on hold until every employee had a criminal background check and one of the Big Five accounting firms had conducted a thorough audit... as a start. Perhaps bring in one of the major management consulting firms to redesign all our systems to make sure our clients, both retail and government, would be able to trust us going forward. Get the president's brother to repay that million dollars he wandered off with, to pay the first installment on the cost. The president and the board will have to pay for the rest, given that as a charity, ACORN shouldn't have any money lying about for such things. No doubt this post demonstrates exactly why nobody is asking me to be in charge. |