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<\/a><\/center><\/p>\nBack in 2009, I ran down the case<\/a> that Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans Association isn’t the non-partisan Veterans Service Organization that it claims. In 2012, I told you about IAVA executive director Paul Rieckhoff’s embellishment of his awards<\/a>. We’ve been warning that IAVA is not what it appears to be, that they are not in the business of helping veterans. Well, Daily Caller<\/a> has an article this morning that supports our contention.<\/p>\n Former employees of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, one of the largest veterans\u2019 advocacy organizations in the country, allege that the charity\u2019s CEO has abused staff and pressured employees to lie about grant funds and project success to mislead donors.<\/p>\n Seven former employees of IAVA spoke to The Daily Caller News Foundation and said among other things that CEO Paul Rieckhoff, who served in Iraq as an Army first lieutenant, has fostered an environment that puts pressure on employees to aggressively fiddle with numbers so that grant finances and grant project goals can be listed as complete.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re tired of seeing funds misused with no support for actual programs,\u201d the first former IAVA employee told TheDCNF on condition of anonymity.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The article continues that IAVA is not in compliance with most of the conditions of their grants, so they make shit up to make it appear as if they are in compliance. Programs are understaffed, money is misdirected;<\/p>\n Staffers also spoke to an environment of extreme paranoia, micromanagement and pressure to fill job roles that had nothing to do with their current positions. When employees decide to leave, one former staffer said that \u201cthey become the enemy.\u201d<\/p>\n As such, turnover has been a prominent issue at the highest levels. In 2016, the CFO left a resignation letter on his desk the day of a board meeting. All six employees on the communications team, management included, had departed by mid-2016, leaving just one person in 2017 to man the desk.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n As we’ve said before, IAVA is for the glorification of Paul Rieckhoff, not anything for veterans.<\/p>\n Jonah Bennett, the author of the piece at The Daily Caller tells me that this isn’t last we’ll hear from him on this subject.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"