Congressional committee investigates Veterans Corp.

The Senate committee on small business and entrepreneurship said it’s investigating the national non-profit that has funded three veterans-geared business counseling centers, including one in St. Louis.

Washington, D.C.-based National Veterans Business Development Corp., also known as The Veterans Corp., has received money from Congress to fund the centers and provide small business training to military veterans. The Veterans Corp. received $1.4 million for fiscal 2008, which started Oct. 1, but gave a total of $135,000 to two of the three centers. It awarded $194,000 more in grants to six other projects.

The three veterans assistance centers — one in Lawrence, Mass., near Boston; one in Flint, Mich.; and the Veterans Business Resource Center in St. Louis — say they all will have to close soon, unless they receive more money. Patrick Heavey, executive director of the St. Louis office, announced Tuesday that he’ll have to shut down operations next month.

The Senate committee is wondering what The Veterans Corp. did with the remaining money, nearly $1.1 million. The commitee said Tuesday that it has been examining The Veterans Corp. since December and expects to release results of its investigation later this year.

“Congress created The Veterans Corp. nine years ago to establish and maintain veterans business resource centers that would help our veterans start or expand businesses,” senators John Kerry, D-Mass., and Olympia Snow, R-Maine, said Tuesday in a joint e-mail statement. “The closing of the center in St. Louis underscores our deep concern that The Veterans Corp. has abandoned their mission.”

Walter Blackwell, the corporation’s president and chief executive, was not immediately available to comment.