MASA Institutes New Controls Following Participant Audit

Israel program provider MASA, is tightening financial controls following a program audit in which only a quarter of registered students were present.

from Haaretz:

Yeshiva, suspected of fraud, returns $410k in stipends to Masa

The police recently concluded an extended investigation into the alleged fraud of a local yeshiva accused of defrauding the Masa Israel project, Anglo File has learned. The police officer in charge of the case said the results of his investigation were transferred to the state attorney’s office due to a “strong suspicion” of illegal activity by yeshiva administrators.

The yeshiva received $410,000 in stipends from Masa for students who signed up for the program but apparently did not attend the institution. The yeshiva, Tomchei Tmimim in Migdal Ha’emek – which belongs to the global educational network of the Chabad movement – denies any wrongdoing.

… The 2009/10 school year was the third time Tomchei Tmimim received stipends for hosting a program for young Jews from the Former Soviet Union, according to Masa. In the previous two years, Masa officials said they paid a total of about $600,000 to the yeshiva, via Israel Experience. Masa subsidizes every participant of this particular program with about $10,000.