Doug Stanglin, and Melanie Eversley

USA TODAY

The board of the Wounded Warriors Project, a national veterans advocacy group under criticism for its handling of donations and spending, ousted two top executives following an independent review of its finances.

The group, based in Jacksonville, Fla., has been challenged over how it spends more than $800 million raised in donations over the past four years. CBS News and The New York Times found the organization spent 40% to 50% on overhead while other veterans' charities spend 10% to 15%.

They also interviewed former employees who accused the organization of making money off their injuries. One former employee said the way Wounded Warrior Project spends money is equivalent to "what the military calls fraud, waste and abuse."

In addition, the charity review organization Charity Navigator rates the Wounded Warrior Project two stars out of four when it comes to finances. In the fiscal year 2014, the organization put 59.9% of its funds toward programs, 34% toward fundraising and 6.1% toward administration.

One member of the Army told CBS he quit working with the organization after two years in 2014 when he discovered lavish spending and catered parties.

"Going to a nice fancy restaurant is not team building," Army Staff Sgt. Erick Millette told CBS News. "Staying at a lavish hotel at the beach here in Jacksonville, and requiring staff that lives in the area to stay at the hotel is not team building."

In a statement Thursday night, the WWP board of directors pushed back on charges of excessive overhead spending, saying that "certain allegations raised in media reports were inaccurate."

It said an independent review found that WWP spends 80.6% of donations on programming, but argued that some groups that measure spending at charitable organizations disregard an "established accounting principle of joint cost allocation" that WWP uses to calculate its program spending. It also said an employee conference at a resort reported to have cost $3 million actually cost about $970,000

While fending off most criticism, WWP said that the review did find that "some policies, procedures and controls at WWP have not kept pace with the organization’s rapid growth in recent years and are in need of strengthening."

To meet those goals and to "help restore trust," the WWP board said new leadership was needed. It said CEO Steve Nardizzi and COO Al Giordano "are no longer with the organization."

The statement said WWP had already begun to strengthen its employee travel policy "to more explicitly limit domestic air travel to economy class absent an exception for health or disability reasons."

It also said the group would adopt new policies on employee expenses and training and promised more transparency on its financial statements.

Among other points, WWP said:

• For fiscal 2014, 94% of the $24.3 million spent on events and conference was "associated with program services delivered to wounded warriors and their families."

• The vast majority of paid air travel has been in economy class, however less than 1% may have been booked for employee travel in first or business class.

• The allegation that “we don’t call warriors, warriors call us” is not accurate. "From 2013 to 2015, WWP employees made more than 150,000 outreach calls and sent more than 114,000 outreach emails to wounded warriors."

It also said it had created an office of the CEO to oversee Wounded Warrior Project on an interim basis. It will be led by board chairman Anthony Odierno and senior members of the existing executive team.

"It is now time to put the organization's focus directly back on the men and women who have so bravely fought for our country and who need our support," Odierno said.

According to the board's statement, participation in Wounded Warrior Project programs for injured veterans, their caregivers and family members rose from 1,850 to 144,000 from 2010 to 2015.