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CHARITIES-SCREENING Aug-17-2004 (1,080 words) xxxn
Charities face daunting terrorism screening requirement
By Patricia Zapor
Catholic News Service
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Three sentences in Item 16 of the check-off list for applications for funding from the federal employees' United Way-style charity campaign may cause some charitable agencies to investigate thousands of employees, volunteers and subcontractors around the world.
The section, added to applications in the last year, requires each of the 10,000 charities that receives money through the Combined Federal Campaign to certify that it does not knowingly employ people or contribute to organizations whose names appear on any of several terrorist watch lists maintained by the government.
Like the United Way, the campaign is a way for government employees to donate a part of their paycheck to charity.
For a CFC recipient the size of Life Teen Inc., a nationwide Catholic youth ministry program, meeting the requirement is probably no more complicated than checking the names of about 30 employees in a handful of U.S. offices against the tens of thousands of names on the government lists, according to Life Teen spokeswoman Jennifer Swanson.
But complying with Item 16 for Catholic Relief Services might require the Baltimore-based international relief and development program to check not only the names of its own 5,000 to 6,000 employees worldwide, but the names of every employee at every one of the thousands of partner agencies and vendors it uses around the world.
Sean Callahan, vice president of overseas operations, said a similar requirement to screen all employees down the line also applies to CRS as a recipient of funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development. Last year CRS received about $350 million through AID and about $1.7 million through the CFC.
"It applies to anyone we give money to" is how CRS has interpreted the requirement, he said.
"We clearly do not want any of our money going to terrorist groups," said Callahan. But the federal government so far hasn't been helpful in explaining just how far recipients of CFC contributions or federal aid must go to ensure that.
For example, he said a name common in South Asia such as Mohammad Wahid, spelled any of several different ways, might come up for 15 different employees of CRS and its partners in the region.
Especially in emergency situations, checking the names of everyone involved in distributing aid for CRS "could slow down our operations," said Callahan.
The American Civil Liberties Union, which received $500,000 through the CFC last year, withdrew from the campaign in July in protest of the requirement.
A Washington Post opinion piece written by ACLU executive director Anthony D. Romero cited the example of the name he's known by to family and friends, Antonio Romero, which appears on the federal list. While the ACLU's Romero has a different birth date from the one on the terrorist list, he pointed out that employers are prohibited by law from asking workers' birthdates to determine which Antonio Romero is involved.
For CRS, the potential pitfalls of the requirement extend beyond the problem of similar names, according to Callahan.
Some AID-funded projects that CRS manages include peace-building and reconciliation efforts, which may of necessity include people or organizations that are named on the watch lists, he said.
Callahan gave the example of a reconciliation program CRS sponsored in Rwanda 10 years ago, after the massacre of hundreds of thousands of people in a brutal civil war.
"There could be people on the list who participated in that," he said. "Can no resources be provided to peace-building activities?"
A spokesman for the Office of Personnel Management, which runs the CFC for the federal government, said he could not comment about the requirement and how it is applied because of the possibility of litigation. The ACLU is reportedly considering suing the federal agency.
An Aug. 9 letter from the director of CFC operations to Romero, which was provided to Catholic News Service by the federal agency, explained that the Item 16 requirement stemmed from a presidential order of 2001 in response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks that year.
"The government has learned that terrorists and their supporters have utilized charitable organizations as one vehicle for transferring funds, directly or indirectly, for terrorist purposes," said the letter from Mara T. Patermaster.
"Accordingly, OPM feels a responsibility to ensure that it does not facilitate, through the CFC, the transfer of funds donated by federal employees through or to the hands of persons designated for their ties to terrorists or terrorist supporters," the letter added.
Although the government has had the requirement for nearly three years, Callahan said, it's only gradually been introduced to the various types of federal aid programs.
The 2001 presidential order also generally applies to commercial transactions. In fact, the wording prohibits any person or entity in the United States from "any transaction or dealing" with any person or group, "including but not limited to the making or receiving of any contribution of funds, goods or services to or for the benefit of individuals or entities designated."
Callahan said because it's only recently been applied to charitable organizations, "the federal government is just now working out the kinks."
In the meantime, CFC recipients as small as Life Teen, which got $3,800 from the fund last year, may consider the requirement just a few hours' extra work.
As a program whose employees and volunteers work with minors, "we're already checking so many things," said Life Teen's Swanson.
The Catholic Near East Welfare Association, which received $208,000 in AID funding last year, "is confident that its personnel policies and background checks, which are rigorously administered for all 129 employees, measure up to the CFC's standards," according to spokesman Michael La Civita. It received $50,000 in CFC funding.
The agency of the Holy See provides pastoral and humanitarian aid in countries throughout the Middle East and India.
Shelley Borysiewicz of Catholic Charities USA said it's unclear whether the government expects it to check just the 44 employees at its Alexandria, Va., headquarters or follow through to whatever local affiliates might receive funding for disaster relief or other special needs.
Catholic Charities, a membership association for local and diocesan church-affiliated social services programs, primarily provides advocacy and technical assistance. But it also serves as a conduit for emergency aid collected nationally, Borysiewicz explained.
That could involve any portion of up to 54,000 paid staffers and 275,000 volunteers employed by hundreds of affiliated agencies, she said. Catholic Charities USA received more than $683,000 in CFC funds in 2003, she said.
END
Copyright (c) 2004 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The CNS news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed, including but not limited to such means as framing or any other digital copying or distribution method, in whole or in part without the prior written authority of Catholic News Service.
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