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  • 2016-12-08 (xsd:date)
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  • John Kerry 'Funneled' State Department Funds to Daughter's Organization? (en)
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  • On 12 September 2016, a Daily Caller report appeared detailing claims that U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry funneled millions of taxpayer dollars from the Department of State through the Peace Corps into a nonprofit foundation headed by his daughter, Dr. Vanessa Kerry: Vanessa Kerry, 39, is Secretary Kerry's younger daughter. After graduating from Harvard Medical School, she completed her residency at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, where she now works as a critical care physician. Kerry also serves as the director of the Program in Global Public Policy and Social Change at Harvard Medical School, and as CEO of the nonprofit organization she helped conceive and launch in 2011, Seed Global Health (initially known as the Global Health Service Corps). The organization recruits and provides financial assistance to volunteer health professionals who train medical workers in less developed countries, under the aegis of the Global Health Service Partnership (GHSP), a joint project of the Peace Corps Response program, the Presidents’ Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), and Seed Global. The partnership sent 72 volunteers to three African countries in 2012 and 2013, according to Dr. Kerry, where they trained roughly 7,200 doctors, nurses, and midwives. The article before us lays out a case for questioning the ethical propriety of Seed Global Health's funding, without competitive bidding, by federal agencies overseen by Dr. Kerry's father: This creates the impression that these amounts were funneled from the State Department through the Peace Corps to Seed Global Health, but it's hardly an accurate representation of how such funds would be allocated. The State Department oversees and directly funds PEPFAR; PEPFAR contributes funding to the Peace Corps for specific HIV/AIDS initiatives; and, since 2012, the Peace Corps has used PEPFAR funds to contract with Seed Global Health to recruit and support medical professionals needed to train doctors and nurses overseas. The article notes, correctly, that when funding for Seed Global Health (then Global Health Service Corps) was first approved in 2012, Sen. John Kerry was chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which oversees both the State Department and Peace Corps. However, the inference that Chairman Kerry was personally involved in the appropriation of said funds is fallacious. It's a subcommittee — the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on State Department and USAID Management, International Operations and Bilateral International Development (at that time chaired by Barbara Boxer) — that directly oversees the operations and budget of the State Department and Peace Corps. It's another subcommittee — the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs (at that time chaired by Patrick Leahy) — that approves legislation providing annual funding to those agencies. The article further notes, correctly, that by the time Seed Global Health's contract was up for renewal in 2015, John Kerry had become Secretary of State. As noted above, the State Department oversees PEPFAR (though it does not oversee the Peace Corps, an independent agency). Again, however, it's not Secretary of State Kerry who wields direct control of PEPFAR and its operations, it's the Office of the Global AIDS Coordinator (OGAC), run by Ambassador-at-Large Deborah L. Birx, M.D., who reports to the Secretary of State, but was appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate. A Seed Global Health spokesperson provided a statement confirming that Secretary Kerry played no role in the decision making pertinent to either the Global Health Service Partnership or Seed Global Health: Similarly, the State Department denied any direct involvement on Secretary Kerry's part: And, in a 2012 interview with Public Radio International, Dr. Kerry herself explained that the program was initiated during a chance meeting with Peace Corps representatives who were speaking at Harvard's Kennedy School. She said her father was not involved: Another piece of evidence cited by Daily Caller to support its suggestion that there is a conflict of interest is a Seed Global Health tax document showing that in 2014 Dr. Kerry drew a salary amounting to just over $140,000. However, a closer look reveals that in fact she received zero reportable compensation from Seed Global itself. What is actually listed is $103,000 in reportable compensation from related organizations, and $37,080 in other compensation. A Seed Global spokesperson said as much in a statement given to Breitbart, which made similar allegations: What is that role? In addition to being a critical care specialist at Massachusetts General, Dr. Kerry is the associate director of partnerships and global initiatives for the hospital's Global Health program, which is listed on Seed Global Health's web site as a founding academic partner. There is no evidence that Dr. Kerry personally benefited from any government funds allocated for use by Seed Global Health. Finally, as to the propriety of the Peace Corps awarding contracts to Seed Global Health on a non-competitive (no-bid) basis, doing so is neither unethical nor illegal under federal law, provided certain criteria are met: Given that Seed Global Health was expressly conceived to provide specialized services within the framework of the Global Health Service Partnership, it would appear to meet all necessary criteria for an exception to the requirement of open competition. (en)
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