Document: Read the full report on the Oklahoma City Disaster Relief Fund
OKLAHOMA CITY – An Oklahoma City foundation has released an audit into its handling of a fund set up to assist survivors of the Oklahoma City bombing, saying the results show an "overwhelming majority" of requests for assistance were approved.
The report states that “nothing in the governing documents indicates its purpose was to be a compensation fund to be shared among the survivors.”
“Since 1995, the overriding goal of all involved has been to assist families, individuals and the community in dealing with the effects of the bombing,” says Steven C. Davis, board chairman of the Oklahoma City Community Foundation. “The Community Foundation’s Trustees and staff are passionately committed to assisting survivors and their families, fulfilling donors’ intent and providing certainty that the fund is properly administered in accordance with the law.”
The Disaster Relief Fund (DRF) was established following the Murrah Federal Building bombing in 1995. Since that time, the fund has paid $11.2 million to assist more than 1,000 survivors.
The audit of the Oklahoma City Disaster Relief Fund was performed by BKD LLP, of Springfield, Mo., which has offices in 12 states, including Oklahoma. The Oklahoma City Community Foundation announced in November it would seek an audit of the fund following a Tulsa World investigation.
The foundation oversees the fund intended to help survivors of the April 19, 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, which killed 168 people and injured hundreds more.
More than $40 million in donations poured in after the bombing, and the foundation received $14.6 million after the funds were consolidated. It has $10 million in donations and earnings remaining in the fund.
The foundation announced it would seek an investigative audit after numerous survivors told the World they had concerns about handling of the fund. Survivors said the foundation had denied their requests for bombing-related medical, education and living expenses while pushing them to apply for government programs and other forms of assistance.
Records show the foundation’s policies limit total payment for living expenses, education and mental health care per person. The policies also state those seeking payment for educational expenses should exhaust all other possible forms of payment first.
Survivors also claimed some foundation staff treated them rudely. Many were also critical of a foundation decision in 2005 to reallocate $4.4 million of the funds for other causes, including donations to other disaster funds and studies that have never been conducted.
Other survivors said they had no idea funds remained to help them as they struggled to pay for their own needs. The bombing fund was not listed on the foundation’s website until the World’s story in November, when it was added to the list of funds.
Allegations that survivors' requests for funding were improperly denied are either errors or misunderstandings, the foundation has said. It said about 1,000 people received assistance with medical bills, living expenses, college tuition and related needs since the fund was established following the bombing.
Nancy Anthony, executive director of the foundation, has declined interview requests and said the foundation cannot address individual cases due to the need for confidentiality.
“Because of questions being raised by certain persons in media reports, BKD’s national forensic audit team was asked to conduct a complete review of the Disaster Relief Fund’s operations,” Davis adds. “The very comprehensive review they conducted clearly refutes any allegations about alleged misuse of funds contributed to the Disaster Relief Fund, but also provides a balanced analysis of any areas where improvements could be made. The Oklahoma City Community Foundation will consider those recommendations, with a view toward continuing to provide the best service possible to survivors, donors and the community.”
The foundation also said it was following strict IRS guidelines in distributing the money.
The foundation oversees more than 1,200 funds with a combined value of more than $630 million.
While the foundation itself has a paid staff, the Murrah fund is overseen by a board of five volunteer trustees.
Members of a group calling itself the Survivor Tree Committee expressed concern in November about a lack of transparency in the foundation’s process related to the audit and the fund operations.
The foundation did not say what the audit’s scope was or whether it would probe survivors’ claims of denied requests. The foundation said it did not keep records of how many requests for assistance were denied.
Holly Sweet, a member of the Survivor Tree Committee, said the group had concerns about the process used to conduct the audit.
“I don’t feel like the auditors are addressing the issues raised by victims’ families and survivors,” Sweet said.
Following the World’s initial story about the fund in November, the group hand delivered a letter to Gov. Mary Fallin’s office and sent letters to other officials asking for help. The letter was signed by Sweet, Deloris Watson and Gloria Chipman.
Chipman’s husband, Robert, died in the bombing.
Watson’s grandson, P.J. Allen, was the youngest survivor of the bombing and was severely injured in the building’s daycare center. She has said the foundation refused to pay for an out of state surgery to remove his tracheotomy tube and other expenses.
“It’s not how much they’ve spent on the victims. It’s what they didn’t do. It’s the little things that they didn’t do that add up. And that’s what’s so significant about them even trying to do an audit,” Watson said.
The group’s letter requested removal of the funds from the foundation’s control and to have them distributed based on need to bombing survivors. The letter suggested attorney Ken Feinberg could help determine how funds should be distributed.
Feinberg has operated victims compensation funds following the 9/11 attacks, Virginia Tech shootings and other disasters. Colorado’s governor called on Feinberg to distribute funds to victims of a movie theater shooting after concerns were raised about how the money was being handled.
Sweet, a donor to the original bombing fund, said the group never received an answer to the letter to Fallin, former Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating, Oklahoma City Mayor Ron Norick and the city’s mayor at the time of the bombing.
“We never received the decency of a single reply from any of those four entities, not a phone call, email, nothing.”
Watson said she is concerned that funds have not been set aside for Allen and others with serious injuries, including Nekia McCloud and Brandon Denny. The three were among six children to survive from the building’s daycare center, where 19 children died.
“There’s nothing in place and these three children, they have brain trauma and major health issues.”
A World story in November reported the foundation spent $1.1 million to help 166 survivors of the bombing in the last three fiscal years, slightly more than it earned from investing the money during that time. It spent a total of $60,000 on medical care for survivors and charged $487,000 to the fund during the last three years to pay for staff salaries.
