Beginning as a small, international humanitarian not-for-profit organization in 1998, the International Relief and Development (IRD) organization has received more grants and cooperative agreements from USAID in recent years than any other nonprofit relief and development organization in the nation — $1.9 billion. Unfortunately, companies such as IRD manage hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of taxpayer-funded programs with little meaningful oversight from USAID, according to interviews with government auditors and former IRD employees familiar with the projects.

Questions:
1. Discuss the IRD employee salaries and compare them with several for-profit companies. Do you think IRD should have not-for-profit status? Present your justification.
2. The article mentioned several individuals that moved from USAID to IRD. What percentage increase in salary did they see? Do you think this is in line with most not-for profit organizations? Explain.
3. Several individuals in the article got large bonuses. Make the bonus journal entry for one of these individuals that should be recorded by IRD.
4. Are bonuses like IRD’s typical of not-for-profits? Discuss.
5. Regarding fraud allegations against IRD, USAID said a senior military official told the agency that “the level of proof is not such that action can be taken.” Explain this statement.

Source:
Higham, S., J. Schulberg, and S. Rich. (2014). Big Budgets, Little Oversight in War Zones. The Washington Post, May 4 (Retrievable online at http://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/doing-well-by-doing-good-the-high-price-of-working-in-war-zones/2014/05/04/2d5f7ca8-c715-11e3-9f37-7ce307c56815_story.html?tid=pm_pop)