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AmeriCorps links service with funds for college

Lending a helping hand has become a way of life for thousands of Americans.

Since 1994, AmeriCorps, President Clinton's national service program, has recruited 25,000 Americans from all walks of life to perform community service projects.

In exchange for their work, AmeriCorps participants receive money that may be used for college, job training or to pay back student loans.

The largest division of AmeriCorps -- with more than 1,350 members -- is managed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Joel Berg, head of the USDA's AmeriCorps program, visited Michigan last week to check on some of AmeriCorps' projects statewide.

"Our organization is here to provide assistance to communities with their agricultural needs," Berg said.

Berg has been director of National Service for the USDA since April 1994. He said his branch of AmeriCorps helps communities clean rivers, assist earthquake and hurricane victims, run soup kitchens and conduct nutrition education programs.

"We are here to help," Berg said.

However, AmeriCorps is not without its problems.

The financial books of the service program are in such disarray that they could not be audited, an internal investigation uncovered last week.

Harris Wofford, head of the Corporation for National Service, which oversees the AmeriCorps project, said he was concerned with the sloppy record keeping.

"The review has concluded that the corporation's financial statements from its first year of operations are not auditable, and that the corporation needs to take additional steps to strengthen internal controls within the organization," Wofford said in a letter to Congress.

Berg said he was also concerned about the recent discovery.

"In Congress, people are going to want to know how the country's money is spent," he said.

Berg said he did not think recent financial troubles would threaten the future of the organization.

"The program has bipartisan support," he said. "It helps middle-class students pay for their education."

According to the USDA/AmeriCorps annual report, the program actually saves taxpayer dollars. The report states that for every dollar spent on AmeriCorps, taxpayers receive more than a dollar's worth of service in return.

-- The Associated Press

contributed to this report.