The United Way Is At It Again

The United Way seems to be in financial trouble again.

The chief financial officer of the United Way of the National Capital Area has resigned in frustration over the organization's reluctance to abandon questionable financial practices she was hired to fix, the Washington Post reports.

Kim Tran, who left the United Way of America in 2003 to help clean up the United Way of the National Capital Area's bookkeeping, resigned in March after UWNCA CEO Charles Anderson instructed her to include $1 million in questionable corporate donations in the announced total for its 2004 campaign. "[Anderson] literally told me, 'I want that [total] as high as possible,'" said Tran, who said she was given no proper documentation for the donations and stayed at her post long enough to make sure accountants used the correct numbers when they finished auditing the organization's books earlier this year. Two other employees, including marketing and communications chief Anthony Owens, also left the organization in March and have confirmed Tran's account.

Yes, I know it's the D.C. region of the United Way. But I still think that organization should be considered to be suspect.