American Soybean Association Urges USDA to Investigate Alleged Misuse of Checkoff Program
The American Soybean Association (ASA) has asked the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Office of the Inspector General to investigate the administration of the federally mandated soy checkoff program that is responsible for industry-wide marketing and promotion efforts. “Serious ethical, legal and financial allegations have been raised about how farmer checkoff funds and program activities are being
conducted,” stated ASA President John Hoffman in a press release that levied several charges against the United Soybean Board (USB) and the U.S. Soybean Export Council (USECC) for their oversight of checkoff resources.
The association’s allegations include “the improper and wasteful expenditure of both checkoff and federal funds; potential evasion of mandated salary and administrative spending caps by USB; conflicts of interest at USB; use of checkoff funds for prohibited purposes by USB; and wasteful and excessive spending by USB.” In addition, ASA cited concerns about “improper USB oversight and tolerance of actions that have taken place at the USECC,” such as “the firing of whistleblowers; improper employee relationships; contracting violations; management malfeasance and the inability of ASA Directors serving on the USSEC Board to obtain an independent and objective investigation of the allegations.” ASA apparently elaborated on these issues in a separate statement, which reported the “use of a knife by a USSEC employee at a USSEC function, whistleblower complaints of an improper employee relationship, a whistleblower complaint of receiving direction to break overseas laws and American regulations, and whistleblower complaints regarding the awarding of no-bid contracts, wasteful or fraudulent feeding trails and more.” See ASA Press Release and U.S. Food Policy Blog, December 10, 2008; The Des
Moines Register, December 11, 2008.
Meanwhile, USB has apparently denied the allegations, claiming that the board operates under USDA guidance and within the scope of the law. “The specific allegations made are anonymous and without apparent or visible substantiation,” USB Chair Chuck Myers said during a press conference. “USB will not make any attempt to respond to each and every anonymous allegation. That would create unfair and unfounded speculation without any basis in fact. It is not ASA’s responsibility to ensure the checkoff program runs properly. It’s USDA’s responsibility.” See AgWeb.com, December 11, 2008.
