Chapter 7 - The Trips That Never Happened
The government grant administrator requested an independent reconciliation of the transport records.
Its auditors needed to determine whether invoices or activity reports had been used to justify payments from grant funds under rules that required documented services.
The foundation could not answer by saying its executives had meant well.
It had to show contracts, routes, driver logs, and proof that the reported activities occurred.
The review proceeded alongside the foundation's internal audit and a separate inquiry into the contractor's billing.
I tried to follow all of it through meeting minutes and public reports instead of rumor.
I wanted to know whether the care people missed had been paid for anyway.
I did not want to make an allegation about government money just because the phrase sounded more dramatic than a spreadsheet discrepancy.
Luis Mendoza spoke through his attorney to the investigators.
He described being instructed to sign route summaries for days when the vehicle remained parked because it lacked a working wheelchair lift.
He showed maintenance requests he'd submitted before refusing to drive the van.
A dispatcher had marked him absent on two of the disputed days even though his timecard showed he was at the depot.
The detail mattered because it could be checked independently.
The contractor argued that the invoices represented vehicle availability, not completed trips, and said it had acted according to its understanding of the agreement.
The auditors reviewed which charges were permissible under each contract and which activity reports had been submitted as evidence of service.
That distinction kept the inquiry from becoming one enormous accusation with no edges.
Meanwhile the clinic finally scheduled me for a prosthetic adjustment I'd delayed because the specialized transport hadn't been available.
The new socket eased the pressure on the scar tissue below my knee.
For the first time in weeks, I walked across a sloping sidewalk without feeling the fear of falling reach my throat.
It was a small, physical victory.
Nobody applauded, and I didn't want them to.
I bought a sandwich on the way home and sat outside in the sun like any other tired person after an appointment.
Roman called to ask whether I would speak at the next foundation meeting.
"About transportation?" I asked.
"About the patient council. I think the board needs to hear from someone who knows how it feels to wait."
I agreed on the condition that other patients could choose their own representatives without passing a publicity test.
At the meeting, Mr. Dawson asked why the foundation didn't provide travel assistance through a published application process rather than requiring veterans to know which staff member to call.
A younger veteran named Kiara spoke about missing therapy because her childcare arrangements kept collapsing.
A retired sailor asked why the call center closed before people finished their work shifts.
Those questions revealed failures that had nothing to do with Evelyn's invoices.
I appreciated them.
If the organization fixed only one scandal, it might still remain inaccessible to the people it claimed to serve.
Roman asked the interim director to publish a timeline for responding to each problem.
A month later the foundation opened applications for the new advisory council.
I decided not to take the chair.
I nominated Kiara, who had a gift for asking blunt, practical questions without assuming every answer was malicious.
She accepted.
Afterward Roman asked why I had declined.
"Because this can't be the Jesse-and-Roman story forever," I said.
"It started that way."
"No. It started long before you saw your dog tags. You just didn't listen until then."
He looked at the tags I still kept in a small envelope.
"I know."
That evening the audit committee released a confidential finding to the board.
The figures used to justify the original cuts were not merely inconsistent.
An analyst had documented concerns about the calculation weeks before the vote.
Roman had received the warning in his executive briefing packet.
May you like
And next to the warning was his own handwritten note.
Proceed anyway. We need the savings this quarter.
