August 21, 2003 | Read Time: 2 minutes
One of the nation’s largest United Ways is suing a former executive to recover $1.6-million in questionable payments he received from the charity during his 27-year tenure.
The United Way of the National Capital Area, in Washington, has filed two lawsuits against Oral Suer, a former executive vice president who retired in February 2001, for allegedly taking a number of unreimbursed cash advances from the charity, improper compensation for vacation or sick leave, and excessive pension payments.
“It is evident now that those who held positions of power in the past apparently manipulated the institution and committed a breach of public trust,” said William Couper, chairman of the group’s board of directors. “We will actively seek full restitution for our community and aggressively seek justice.”
An audit released last week by the accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers uncovered the irregular payments and prompted the lawsuit. The United Way ordered the extensive audit after reports of alleged improprieties in the nonprofit organization’s accounting practices surfaced last year. The allegations led to an investigation by the U.S. attorney’s office in Alexandria, Va., and the Department of Labor, among others.
In total, the audit says Mr. Suer received about $2.4-million from the organization outside his normal compensation. The auditors said that, as far as they could determine, he repaid $961,200 of that amount.
“There appear to be a number of issues that point to attempts by past top management to personally benefit from the organization at the expense of others,” the audit report said. “There was a clear lack of transparency, personal accountability, and stewardship, particularly in the period under Mr. Suer.”
Mr. Suer’s lawyer, Graeme W. Bush, did not respond to inquiries requesting comment on the lawsuit or the audit.
The audit report uncovered other possible improprieties at the organization. Among them:
- Five current and former United Way executives may have received $69,500 in improper compensation.
- Mr. Suer wrongly approved a loan of $3-million from the Combined Federal Campaign — the federal government’s annual charity drive operated by the United Way — to the United Way’s accounts. While the money was repaid without interest, as far as auditors could tell, the reason for the transfer remains a mystery.
- The United Way had arrangements with several companies that ran fund-raising drives that the audit described as improper. For example, the charity allowed one corporation, which the audit did not name, to let its employees designate donations to 47 funds that benefited members of the company, such as one to aid a senior manager who had fallen ill.
PricewaterhouseCoopers said its examination of the charity was limited by the refusal of Mr. Suer and other former officials to be interviewed because of the investigation by federal prosecutors.
The audit is available online from the United Way of the National Capital Area at http://www.unitedwaynca.org/website/index.cfm?c=media/forensic.audit.report.
