Nov 16, 2015

Wikileaks releases audiotapes allegedly showing fraud in Obama and Bush administrations

Tapes reportedly provide evidence that a programme intended to encourage the hiring of disabled people was mired in corruption

By , Washington - 3:30PM GMT 16 Nov 2015
 
Wikileaks released audiotapes on Monday purporting to reveal that appointees of the Bush and Obama administrations corruptly misappropriated funds intended to encourage the hiring of disabled people. The tapes are intended to provide evidence that billions of dollars meant for disabled people went instead to defence contractors and other major corporations without large proportions of disabled employees. The accusations centre on a government programme called AbilityOne, which awards about $3 billion annually in government contracts. Most of that money is distributed by SourceAmerica, a non-profit. It is intended for companies in which at least 75 per cent of work is performed by blind or otherwise disabled people, as a tool to get more such people into the workforce.

AbilityOne is the largest employment programme for disabled people in the US.
Allegations of fraud and corruption against AbilityOne and SourceAmerica emerged earlier this year.
Reports emerged in July that more than half of the companies awarded contracts did not have enough disabled employees to qualify.
Wikileaks has now released 30 hours of audiotapes that they say buttress those accusations.
They claim more than half of the labour placed by SourceAmerica went to the Department of Defence and contractors like Lockheed Martin and Boeing.
"The result is billions in tax payer funded labour subsidies and increased profits for the placement organisations," the group said in a press release.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/wikileaks/11998922/Wikileaks-releases-audiotapes-allegedly-showing-fraud-in-Obama-and-Bush-administrations.html