Feature at GOVERNMENT EXECUTIVE on FOIA:
govexec.com/features/0409-01/0409-01s1.htm

PCs new FOIA denials. Notice internal rules and practices:
peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=pchq.policies.foia.faq

Non RPCVs are the answer to keeping PC fresh. These people are equally or more qualified. We need to hire more non RPCVs. The institutional memory really doesn’t exist at NPCA, one of the reasons it was created. If RPCVs won’t do that work there, then where will they? After they get the job at PC? After they get work at NPCA? After they get all involved with lobbying and budgeting? After we lobby for more jobs a NSA or civilian DoD? RPCVs are supposed to do this on their own and not just salute the PC, hoping to get work. NPCA has failed at this and this is one of the reasons it’s difficult to get ahead.
The RPCV issue is work when we’re done. Maybe we need some more studies like CNCS?

MOst politicians not knowing PC is common and constant lobbying won’t educate them. Maybe a website with documents they can study and learn without any opinioning? It’s easy to trap them. If we won’t be honest with everything then there are problems. They should be able to look up most questions on the internet or ask an RPCV and get an honest answer, not one for budgets or expansions. RPCVs should be educating politicians on their own, not have it all wrapped up in lobbying and budgeting.

PC is an executive agency and the responsibility should be with the President, not Congress. Congress wants people to believe their supposed to run agencies because it’s federal jobs and money, something they always want to control.

FOIA requests were encouraged 20 years ago before and after service. The PC would query over themselves. PC also wanted a lot of queries. They lead in FOIAs, lobbying for easier access. What’s happened is a bunch of requests were made and people found out nothing is released over a death or accident. That is unfortunate as this is one of the main reasons for querying. What happened to my fellow PC? They just came out with new reason for denials on the website. The first one is national security, which really is a privacy issue. FOIAs have become more difficult because of the queries, which is how an RPCV can educate everyone easily.

We need to start a new thread! This type of exchange is rare at PC and it’s needed more.

I would like to make these observations. PC is simply not the same agency through time. Many of its HQ staff and procedures are a function of which political party is in charge. The five year rule means that the staff turns over all the time. It is not a constant. There is no Peace Corps. There is an agency in a constant state of flux. This frustrates everyone trying to get information or to work with the agency.

I dealt with PC./Bush-Vasquez; PC/Bush -Tschetter; and now, PC/Obama- Williams. I found myself talking with well intentioned people who were not RPCVs, for the most part, and who had no institutional memory of the Peace Corps, and could not respond to requests for information, because they simply did not know, not because they were trying to hide anything. During the Bush era, my impression is that the staff was dominated by retired military.

As far as I can tell, all the Bush political appointees, including the Director, resigned and left on January 20, 2009. Williams was not sworn in until August of 2009. Those political positions were still not totally fulfilled, according to Wikipedia, by last November. Three of the five staff people I talked with around FOIA requests were civil service appointees who have now left because of the five-year rule. It is like starting all over again.

The responsibility for this situation lies with Congress.

Corporation for National and Community Service

United States Institute of Peace

Office of Inspector General (independent agency at PC)

There have been several investigations of the Walter Porrier disappearance. The last few were done by Congress because PC refused. RPCVs ordered these and Congress had them done again. They found some information, but it was never published. Bolivia was closed shortly after the last one blaming a volunteer for spying, which may have been the case with Porrier, reporting to HCNs who work for their or other governments. There are lots of theories. PC refuses to publish under FOIA this and other PC deaths like Kate Puzey, who was supposedly murdered by three PC staff and So-Youn Kim who died in hospital after a month of an unknown disease. The problems here are the same as Porrier; PC may be liable and uses the privacy /family wishes excuses not to release dates and cause of death. Any information is difficult to find. More theories based on in country media. FOIA will never be released and appeals to OIG will never be published either. They are now an independent agency with no real appeal process. Congress is trying legislation like a commission or something, but it’s difficult to find the appeal process.

The military comparison costs us. It is counter productive. There is no way to justify 95% overhead. We used to do this by being independent and telling everyone we had everything we needed. Now, we ask to be placed at NGOs, etc. CNCS does the same job. There is no real difference. Most of what PC does can be done in country by an NGO. We need to partner more and we’ll be as efficient as CNCS. The costs aren’t justified or needed and, in fact, cost the in country PCs as we stay in more and more dangerous countries. They are not safe with PC.

CNCS is moving to more non member grants to Universities and cities to do the work CNCS’s do;now recruit and retrain other volunteers rather than just volunteering(member needed grants and non member grants). This was the plan for PC, get grants up without including the PCs and justify the cost per PC/CNCS as grants, etc. This works at CNCS and won’t at PC because we already get free university educations, etc. and CNCS just pays the CNCS’s university’s bill. Either way, the reasons for the existence of the programs is moved around to justify the cost per employee(CNCS’s/PCs). CNCS costs are doubling and ours are more difficult to justify as we ask for more admin. CNCS/PC are coming to realities that the reasons for their existence can no longer be justified. They’ve ‘grown’ into something bigger that; does third goals, etc. The reasons for their existence are still important, etc., but they do so much more……….

So, when we look at the entirty of CNCS/PC- we see that both pay below poverty wages(I think CNCS pays like a dollar above it if you add it right, someone might have lobbied) CNCS/PC should be paying what everyone else pays. At least a minimum wage,etc. Living in poverty and getting a ‘big’ payoff at the end like a check for your university, etc. can’t be justified. There is no point in keeping these people poor as they were when they went in. It’s not the right thing to do using these people. It can also be argued this is the worst kind of neo colonialism as countries go on there 50th year of no real improvement, like in cash and work, etc. and the PCs and CNCSs get done with their service and stay poor. Maybe we need a study here like, I think it was Kevin or some real smart, what happens when their done with service. Income, jobs, life, etc.

PC and CNCS are getting bigger, richer and more political. Filing FOIAs last few years and this year have changed. Some times they want to make deals for the information, then abuse it, putting people in danger. Some times they just don’t respond to simple FOIAs, not even a denial. So, as we ask for all this money for admin we can’t even justify it with the services. The smart people get the message and move on. The other ones get problems. Some people just keep coming ’cause that’s what they do.

PC is having big problems and they are evident when you deal with them. PC often harasses Congress this way: ‘I’m a problem, please help me.’ They will put people in danger to do this. So, we pay people to ask for more money; PC has at least two lobbyists(I think one got fired for not explaining simple details) at Congress like other agencies and pays NPCA, etc to do their work. Not a problem, but everyone is starting to notice and it just doesn’t seem right. Anyone can take a look at see what the problems are; no business could survive like this and the cash would be much more efficient with NGOs, etc.

There is a lot more information if you have the time to check. Getting the message can be a problem, though.

My point is that the largest part of the Peace Corps cost goes to the elaborate staff in Washington rather than the volunteer in the field. To count, allowance is around $6000, health care maybe $1200, travel to and from post, $1000 each year, training $1000 per year - all in all perhaps $10,000 in direct costs for the volunteer. That leaves $48,000 for administration, planning, negotiating and so on in Washington. If a not-for-profit organization said that 18% of its income goes to services delivered, while 82% goes to overhead, it would see its donations rapidly dry up.

But Peace Corps deserves this $465 million appropriation.

If you question why it costs $50,000 per year to support a volunteer,
you should also ask why it costs a million dollars to support a US solider or $300,000 to support a State Department worker. Volunteers need support including medical care, programmatic guidance, and safety and security, and Peace Corps needs infrastructure in-country. Relative to other international programs, Peace Corps is exceedingly cost-effective.

Consider that Peace Corps is less than 1% of the US foreign affairs budget (which is 1% of the overall US budget). Until 1982, I believe, it was under the category “miscelleneous.” It is not a major recipient of funding and recognizing this many Presidents have pledged to double the Peace Corps budget but it has not happened. To say it is wasteful and expensive doesn’t strike me as true.

There are a lot of exciting things that can happen with more funding. Peace Corps needs to improve but so does every other agency and program.

On its 50th anniversary, the agency is half the size it was in 1966 - that is shameful. This $465 million is a pittance compared to what we spend on other international aide programs and volunteers deserve the support.

The Peace Corps experience is really like no other. You live immersed at the grassroots for 2 years. You learn the language and you live among the people. It’s a gem of a program and been underfunded and starved for resources for too long. That’s why we’re working so hard to get some more resources for the outstanding new director.

Thanks for your comment though.

-Rajeev
Nepal 01-03

Does OIG mean Office of the Inspector General?

Also, you say that Walter Porrier was murdered. When was that determined? I thought that he went missing over his Christmas vacation in 2000 and no one knew what had happened to him.

Thank you.