POGO's Beverley Lumpkin to Appear on Federal News Radio

Just wanted to give everybody a quick heads up that POGO's Beverley Lumpkin is scheduled to appear on Federal News Radio (WFED) this morning at 11:00 a.m.  The interview will be broadcast live on radio station 1050 AM, and also online at http://federalnewsradio.com/?nid=249.

-- Michael Smallberg

All Thumbs

A fascinating new angle on the Scott Bloch story has just been broken by Ari Shapiro on NPR.  Shapiro is reporting that part of the search warrant served on Bloch on Tuesday included a physical search of Bloch himself in order to seize his computer thumb drive.  In fact, the agents seized two thumb drives from him, according to Shapiro's and POGO's sources.

Shapiro further reports that before having his hard drive "scrubbed"€ by Geeks on Call a couple of years ago, Bloch first downloaded certain files onto the thumb drives.  He has said he had the computers' hard drives erased in order to get rid of a virus.

If Bloch is found to have lied to investigators--whether FBI agents, OPM Inspector General investigators, or staffers of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform who interviewed Bloch earlier this year--then it's possible he could become the latest example of that old Washington adage that it's always the cover-up that gets you in the end.

-- Beverley Lumpkin

Pandemic Flu Still Poses Major Threat

At a meeting held Tuesday in Geneva, health experts from around the world discussed the serious threat posed by a flu pandemic, urging governments to plan now for a potential outbreak.  "We can't delude ourselves.  The threat of a pandemic influenza has not diminished," said Keiji Fukuda, coordinator for the World Health Organization's Global Influenza Program.

Scientists are particularly concerned about a recent strain of bird flu virus that could spread among humans, potentially leading to a full-blown pandemic.  Also, as Fukuda pointed out, some countries are woefully unprepared for an outbreak, with plans consisting of nothing more than a "piece of paper acknowledging the risk." 

Here in the U.S., Secretary of Health and Human Services Mike Leavitt has taken creative measures to prepare for a pandemic flu.  But POGO still has major concerns with the government's plan.  As we discussed in our recent report, Pandemic Flu: Lack of Leadership and Disclosure Plague Vaccine Program, the Department of Health and Human Services has neglected to recruit a permanent director for BARDA, a new agency tasked with facilitating collaboration between government, industry, and academia to develop a flu vaccine.  In addition, the government has failed to disclose some essential documents related to the flu vaccine program, such as contracts with vaccine manufacturers and the program budget.  Without public disclosure of these and other documents, government and health leaders might not learn about problems and possible improvements to the program until it is too late.

Click below to watch a video of POGO's Ned Feder discussing our investigation into the government's pandemic flu vaccine program.

-- Michael Smallberg

Internal Draft Document Reveals Bloch-Headedness

POGO has gained access to an extraordinary internal document from the Office of Special Counsel, an independent federal agency charged with protecting whistleblowers from reprisal.  Clearly marked "DRAFT," it is a memo dated January 18, 2008, to Special Counsel Scott Bloch from the members of a special task force.  The task force was created, according to the memo, in May 2007, "to pursue certain complex and high profile investigations, such as the firing of the U.S. Attorneys and the political presentations given by the White House Office of Political Affairs (OPA)."  The stated subject of the memo is "Summary of Task Force Activities and Recommendations," but it reads at times like an anguished cry from investigators charged with an important mission but virtually every recommendation they make is countermanded by their boss.  If they recommend going forward with an inquiry, Bloch says no.  If they say they lack evidence or jurisdiction, he orders them to go forward.

The inescapable conclusion reached from poring through the contents of this 13-page memo is that Bloch was deliberately creating the impression of a huge ongoing multi-faceted investigation of the White House--at the same time that he himself was being investigated by another arm of the White House for various forms of misconduct.  [NOTE: someone used a highlighter on the document, making certain passages nearly impossible to read.  We have transcribed those darkened parts here.] 

Here is my analysis, along with some juicy quotes.

Continue reading "Internal Draft Document Reveals Bloch-Headedness"

Value for the Money? The Defense Budget Blackhole

Near the end of a recent piece by Fred Kaplan, he wrote in Slate that:

The United States has the world's most powerful military. This military consumes more money (adjusting for inflation) than it did at the height of the Cold War. Not counting the costs of the two wars, it spends as much on the military as the rest of the world's countries combined. And yet, despite all this money and global reach, the U.S. Army finds itself unable to sustain more than 150,000 or so troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Pentagon leaders want us to spend even more, but as Kaplan makes clear, even with our current grotesquely large defense budget, we're having trouble fighting wars against relatively low-tech insurgencies in two medium-sized countries (both Iraq and Afghanistan have populations of around 30 million).  God forbid if we actually have to fight a real war against a near peer (which is being touted as China which has 1.3 billion people and high-tech).  More money is not the answer. 

Some of the problem is what we're buying (i.e. do we have the appropriate military for the conflicts we're in and likely to face?) and how we're buying (i.e. the acquisition process which includes contracting) and how efficiently the contractors we pay with taxpayer dollars develop and produce weapons.  The former two issues are well worn, the third is taken for granted, but shouldn't be.  In the commercial world, industry constantly delivers higher quality products at significantly reduced prices.  In the defense industry, the opposite is true.  It is easy to argue that we pay much more even relative to the increase in quality. 

Continue reading "Value for the Money? The Defense Budget Blackhole"

Breaking News: FBI Agents Raid OSC Offices

The Wall Street Journal and NPR are reporting that FBI agents have raided the offices of Special Counsel Scott Bloch, seizing computers and documents belonging to Bloch and his staff as part of an ongoing investigation into alleged obstruction of justice.  Although Bloch has not been officially charged with any crime, FBI agents also searched his home and shut down email access at OSC offices across the country. 

The Journal previously reported that Bloch hired a private tech company, Geeks on Call, to conduct a seven-layer scrub of his computer and several office laptops.  Bloch claimed he was deleting a virus, but investigators suspect that he was destroying evidence related to allegations that he had used his office for political purposes and retaliated against career employees.

We'll keep you posted as we learn more.

-- Michael Smallberg

UPDATE: Click here for more background on Scott Bloch and the Office of Special Counsel.  You can also learn more by reading POGO's previous blog posts:

http://pogoblog.typepad.com/pogo/2007/11/bloch-scrubs-di.html
http://pogoblog.typepad.com/pogo/2007/05/office_of_speci.html
http://pogoblog.typepad.com/pogo/2006/09/leave_sharon_st.html
http://pogoblog.typepad.com/pogo/2006/05/who_wrote_this_.html
http://pogoblog.typepad.com/pogo/2005/01/purge_at_agency.html

UPDATE 2: POGO is especially interested in what turns up, as we are in the midst of completing an investigation into OSC's handling of whistleblower disclosures and whistleblowing reprisals complaints from Federal Air Marshals.

It Never Hurts to Ask

As agency officials continue to grapple with issues such as competitive sourcing and an aging federal workforce, they should keep in mind that an increasing number of young Americans are expressing an interest in public service, according to a new Gallup survey to be released today by the Council for Excellence in Government.

As reported by Stephen Barr in yesterday's Washington Post, the survey found that nearly a third of Americans under the age of 30 would seriously consider working for the government if asked by their parents, a teacher, or the next president.  The only problem, according to 60 percent of respondents younger than 30, is that nobody has asked them.

Patricia McGinnis, president and chief executive of the council, says that the survey underscores the "potential for the new president and administration, especially as we have the retirement wave getting under way, to ask people, not just millennials but older people as well, to serve. There's a sense that many would respond and step up, as they did when John F. Kennedy asked."

We at POGO yearn for an influx of public-minded young people seeking to fill the ranks of the federal government. Our biggest concern is that many see working as a "fed" as nothing more than a stepping stone to making big bucks in the private sector, rather than a opportunity to serve as a guardian of the public trust. We need a leader who will once again instill in young Americans the pride of becoming a civil servant.

-- Michael Smallberg

Do As I Say, Not As I Purchase

Loyal readers of this blog might recall a recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) audit that found widespread abuses of the purchase card program throughout the federal government (e.g., the luxurious steak-and-cocktail dinner hosted by U.S. Postal Service employees that cost taxpayers over $13,000).  But if the GAO report didn't convince you that federal agencies need to do more to strengthen accountability in their purchase card programs, maybe this week's headlines will change your mind.

One of the more ironic stories of purchase card abuse comes to us from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where a U.S. Forest Service employee, Suzanne Poetz, has pleaded guilty to stealing $300,000 from her agency's program.  As part of her plea, Poetz admitted to over 150 instances of theft.  But the best part of all?  In 1998, Poetz received a Hammer Award from Vice President Al Gore--for developing the Agriculture Department's purchase card program.  (The Hammer Awards were given to federal employees whose work "resulted in a government that works better and costs less").

Another example of purchase card abuse was highlighted in the Houston Chronicle over the weekend.  A review by the Chronicle showed that NASA employees have used their purchase cards to pay for iPods, video games, jewelry, karate gear, and even clothes from the agency's headquarters.  In addition, some agency employees may have broken the law by not holding competitive bids for larger purchases.  As POGO's Scott Amey pointed out, "You have to ask: is somebody trying to get around competitive requirements?"

POGO has long argued that inadequate oversight in the purchase card program exposes federal agencies to wasteful and fraudulent expenditures.  We've also issued a number of recommendations for improving oversight and accountability in the program.  Hopefully these latest scandals will serve as yet another wakeup call for agency officials throughout the government.      

-- Michael Smallberg

Clay Johnson Responds to POGO

Click here to read a letter from Clay Johnson, Deputy Director for Management at OMB, responding to POGO's blog post on the annual Inspector General conference.

Over and Doan With

On Tuesday, it was reported that Lurita Doan, embattled head of the General Services Administration, was forced to resign by the White House. She made the announcement to colleagues in an e-mail. The GSA issued a press release the next day.

Doan was appointed GSA Administrator in May 2006 and almost immediately began attracting controversy. She landed on POGO's radar within a matter of weeks with a high-ranking agency appointment that reeked of cronyism. Months later, we learned of her dislike for inspectors general, whom she reportedly compared to terrorists.

Things really started going downhill for Doan in 2007 with allegations of procurement improprieties and an Office of Special Counsel determination that she violated the Hatch Act by improperly using GSA resources to help elect Republicans. Doan's March 2007 appearance before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee bordered on the absurd, with repeated claims of having "no recollection" of the meeting at which the Hatch Act violation occurred, except that there were "cookies on the table." Her performance at that and a subsequent hearing, combined with allegations that Doan tried to intimidate employees who were cooperating with the Committee's investigation, led an exasperated Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) to call for her resignation:

Nevertheless, Doan remained on the job, looking like she would ride out the remainder of Bush's second term. But this week, she was summoned to the White House and given the axe. The question everyone is asking is: why now?

There is speculation that Doan's departure has something to do with the recent exoneration of her agency's inspector general, Brian Miller. Miller was recently cleared of misconduct allegations in two separate whistleblower investigations, much to the displeasure of Doan. It may be that Doan's ongoing public spat with Miller, on top of all of her other problems, was the straw that broke the camel's back.

What's next for Lurita Doan? It seems likely we have not seen or heard the last of Doan, who was once a very successful government contractor and deep-pocketed GOP donor. POGO will be watching.

-- Neil Gordon