SHELTER'S $6.5 MILLION FROM D.C. UNAUDITED

The District did not conduct a single audit of how $6.5 million of local tax dollars was spent to renovate a private shelter run by the Community for Creative Non-Violence and has yet to explain why, according to the D.C. auditor.

The auditor's report, completed Oct. 20, reviewed federal and local funds used to renovate the shelter at 425 Second St. NW from 1986 to 1989. Although the federal government completed an audit of the use of $6.5 million in federal assistance, the District never did the same for the $6.5 million it contributed, according to the report by D.C. Auditor Otis H. Troupe.

"No one was able to provide the audit team with a clear audit trail of all expenditures involved with this project," the auditor found, attributing the shortcoming to the management by the Department of Human Services.

Ministries United to Support Community Life Endeavors Inc. was the developer of the project and disbursed all funds for the project. A MUSCLE spokesman said yesterday the nonprofit group has completed two independent audits of the shelter project and provided the results to the city. MUSCLE did not know why the city never conducted its own audits, the spokesman said.

Department of Human Services spokesman Rae Parr-Moore said yesterday the department was still reviewing the auditor's report and had no comment.

The audit, requested by D.C. Council member H.R. Crawford (D-Ward 7), recommends that the city gather financial reports to determine how money was spent and "establish a dialogue" with the CCNV to see if the shelter can be organized to be eligible for federal reimbursements.

The shelter is not registered as a corporation or a tax-exempt entity, and does not pay taxes, according to Mitch Snyder, shelter organizer. Snyder said he had not seen the audit but is opposed to any suggestion that the shelter incorporate. "We're philosophically and theologically opposed to that . . . . We're not interested in becoming a bureaucracy," he said.

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