ATLANTA — A new Senate investigation is giving a blistering report on how the American Red Cross used nearly half a billion dollars in donations aimed at helping earthquake victims in Haiti.
Channel 2's Lori Geary traveled to Haiti earlier this year and saw firsthand why many Haitians are still waiting on help six years after the massive earthquake hit.
Dino Dascar is just one of the Haitian people Geary met in the outskirts of Port-au-Prince, who says he never saw any donation money.
"I don't even know the color of their money, because I haven't gotten anything," Dascar said.
In the more than 300-page, Senator Chuck Grassley says there are substantial and fundamental concerns about the American Red Cross. The relief agency adamantly disagrees.
Grassley's office says executives at the Red Cross also tried to stop a review by the government accountability office.
During Geary's trip to Haiti, she found tens of thousands of people still living in temporary housing six years after the 7.0 magnitude earthquake hit.
According to Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, the Red Cross spent a quarter of the money raised, $124 million, on management, fundraising and "program costs."
The rest of the funds about $360 million went to partner organizations, which took their own cut for administrative expenses.
Grassley's office also found of the 20,000 people employed by the Red Cross, only three of them work for the company's internal investigations department.
The Red Cross responded to Grassley's investigation with the following statement:
"The American Red Cross strongly disagrees with the findings. We have accounted for every penny spent in Haiti. Chairman Grassley's memo does not note a single finding of fraud or abuse."
Cox Media Group
