The non-profit organization, headed by Secretary of State John Kerry's daughter Vanessa, has been accused of not adhering to the government contracts, despite being awarded millions of dollars from the Department of State, The Daily Caller News Foundation revealed.
Seed Global Health, which had promised to send 90 volunteer doctors and nurses to somewhere between 10 to 14 third world countries in 2016, sent just 70 doctors to five countries only, the report stated. Despite facing similar shortcomings in previous years too, the Department of State went ahead in awarding the organization an additional $6.4 million.
So far, the Department of State has given away a total of more than $9 million since 2012 to Seed, the report added.
From the very start, Vanessa's non-profit had been missing targets which were clearly stated in the contract. Instead of penalizing the organization for failing to deliver, the Peace Corps, through which the grants were awarded, lowered Seed's requirements and extended its contract.
According to a 2012 Peace Corps contract, Seed was required to deploy 40 volunteers to five countries in 2014. Seed instead sent 42 volunteers to just three countries, failing to fulfill the contract criteria.
Similarly, when Seed was required to deploy 48 volunteers for six to eight countries in 2015, the organization sent 32 volunteers to the same three countries that got 42 volunteers in 2014.
Despite the drawback, Seed requested a budget increase claiming it would recruit 48 volunteers for both 2014 and 2015.
The organization also breached another section of the contract that directed Seed "to scale up the program over successive years, expanding the number of volunteers, countries and health professionals involved."
Not only did Peace Corps cut down on the contract's annual recruitment requirements for Seed between 2012 and 2015, but also gave the latter an additional nearly $900,000 award for "underestimated salary and travel expenses."
Incidentally, Kerry started drawing a six-figure salary from Seed during the same time. "The original cooperative agreement noted an aggressive schedule … which was revised after the first year of the project due to unobtainable targets," a draft of the extension said.
According to the original contract, in the five-year plan Seed promised to send 180 volunteers to between 15 and 18 countries. The extension was amended to a six-year plan capped at 76 volunteers deployed to just five countries.
Meanwhile, Peace Corps, Seed and Department of State officials were all familiar with the recruitment failures, but went ahead with the extension anyway.
Earlier on Wednesday, Department of State spokesman John Kirby told The DCNF in a statement: "As we have made clear, Secretary Kerry played no role in this decision making while in the Senate or subsequently while at the State Department. Using funds appropriated by Congress for PEPFAR, the State Department Office of the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator directs funds through an interagency process to seven implementing agencies, including the Peace Corps. To be clear — this is a Peace Corps partnership and its approval went the through the standard interagency budgeting and review process. There was — and remains — no conflict of interest here."