The Project On Government Oversight (POGO) Blog

Morning Smoke: Was the Joint Strike Fighter Doomed from the Outset?

Where there's smoke, there's fire. POGO's Morning Smoke is a collection of the previous day's investigations, scoops, and opinions related to the world of government oversight. Have a story you'd like to see included? Contact POGO's blog editor.

F-35 started with recipe for trouble, analysts say
Bob Cox, Star-Telegram

Contractors complain audit agency has gotten too strict
Marjorie Censer, The Washington Post

WikiLeaks furor causes defeat of rights bill with Las Vegas ties
Alan Maimon, Las Vegas Review-Journal

Reaction To Issa Oversight Request
Scott Hodes, The FOIA Blog

Was the Financial Crisis Avoidable?
The New York Times' Room for Debate

FBI involved in hundreds of violations in national security investigations
Ken Dilanian, Los Angeles Times

Iraqi security forces facing serious problems, U.S. oversight official reports
Walter Pincus, The Washington Post

Blowout preventer inquiry discovers no conflict so far
Jennifer A. Dlouhy, Houston Chronicle

WikiLeaks More Effective Than SEC, Says Enron Whistleblower
Ben Hallman, Center for Public Integrity

Centcom buys trouble with purchase cards
Howard Altman, The Tampa Tribune

Don't Let Review of Classified Information Safeguards Infringe on Rights

By Bryan Rahija

POGO and other good government advocates are urging the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to be careful about infringing upon the constitutional rights of employees as it moves forward with a review of procedures to safeguard classified information.

The Obama Administration first ordered agencies to assemble teams to assess their handling of classified information back in November, following WikiLeaks' disclosure of around a quarter million State Department documents. OMB followed up with additional guidance on January 3, which included a list of questions to help agencies conduct their assessments. The agency assessments are due today, but as the good government groups wrote in a letter to OMB Director Jack Lew this afternoon, there are some concerns about the guidance issued by OMB:

5 Notable Excerpts from the Unposted SEC IG Reports

By Michael Smallberg

Last week, POGO unveiled a resource page with over twenty investigative reports by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Office of Inspector General (OIG) that you won’t find anywhere on the websites of the SEC or OIG.

The OIG has summarized these reports, often in great detail, in its semiannual reports to Congress, and many of these investigations have already been disclosed by the media and Congress. We’ve also covered many of these investigations on our blog. Nonetheless, we thought we’d highlight some of our favorite excerpts from the full unposted reports, which detail a wide range of troubling misconduct at the SEC over the past few years. 

Here are our five favorite excerpts, in no particular order: 

Fun Friday Fact of the Day

By Bryan Rahija

Apparently, Glenn Fine, the outgoing Inspector General (IG) for the Department of Justice (DOJ), once had other career options available to him besides public service. From an NPR profile on Fine released this morning:

A lot of people have underestimated Fine over the years — starting with his success in basketball. The San Antonio Spurs drafted him in the 10th round in 1979. Fine keeps a team poster on his wall to prove it.

"I'm quite short — I'm 5-foot-9 — and they don't believe I played basketball," Fine says. "So I've taken to telling people, 'Well, before I started this job as the inspector general, I was 6-foot-9.' "

NPR reports that Cynthia Schnedar, Fine's longtime deputy, will lead the office after Fine's departure. Read and listen to NPR's piece on Fine, which offers a quick review of his decade-long tenure as DOJ IG, here.

Related: Help Wanted: Oversight at the Justice Department

Morning Smoke: Commission: Regulators Partly to Blame for Financial Crisis

 

Where there's smoke, there's fire. POGO's Morning Smoke is a collection of the previous day's investigations, scoops, and opinions related to the world of government oversight. Have a story you'd like to see included? Contact POGO's blog editor.

Harsh Words for Regulators in Crisis Commission Report
Ben Protess and Susanne Craig, DealBook

Earmarks wane but lobbying doesn't
Chris Frates, Politico

MSPB upholds employee appeal rights
Emily Long, Government Executive

Adopting A New Rule: Really Ending Secret Holds
Paul Blumenthal, Sunlight Foundation

House panel wants details of information requests
Associated Press

Alaska Native Firms Shift Stimulus Work to Outsiders
Michael Grabell and Jennifer LaFleur, ProPublica 

Pentagon Criticized for Falling Short on Efficiencies
Laurel Adams, Daily Watchdog

Memo to FCIC: More Transparency, Please
Nick Baumann, Mother Jones

Former Freddie Mac Lobbyist to Get Top Senate Banking Committee Job
Victoria McGrane, Wall Street Journal

The Feds Are Investigating How Many Fraud Cases?
Ed Silverman, Pharamlot

Interior moves to shield scientists from politics
Stephen Losey, Federal Times

Study: Undersea Dispersant in Gulf of Mexico Lingered in Deepwater Plume
Paul Voosen, Greenwire

It's O-Fish-al: POGO Thinks Past Performance Information Should be Made Public

By Neil Gordon

Notice anything strange about this Government Accountability Office (GAO) bid protest decision? In this decision, involving a protest over the award of a Department of Defense (DoD) commissary supply contract, GAO reveals past performance information about a contractor—the kind of information DoD has refused to turn over to POGO.

Page 3 of the decision contains a chart showing what appears to be the past performance grades of the protesting and awardee contractors. Back in 2008, in response to POGO’s FOIA request for information contained in the Past Performance Information Retrieval System (PPIRS), including contractors’ “performance grades,” we were given the brush-off by DoD, which determined that the release of this data would subject contractors to the risk of being “targeted by those seeking to harm the interests of the U.S. Government.”

But it gets even better. The decision then goes on to vividly describe the past performance track record of Nayyarsons Corporation, the company that won the contract. Hold on to your stomachs:

No Joking: Senator Franken Tough on Fraud

By Scott Amey

Yesterday, the Senate Judiciary Committee tackled contractor accountability in a hearing entitled “TIME CHANGE -- Protecting American Taxpayers: Significant Accomplishments and Ongoing Challenges in the Fight Against Fraud.” Fighting fraud in government contracts is becoming a hot topic and one that can be a win-win for agencies, politicians, and taxpayers.

During the hearing, Senator Al Franken (D-MN) pressed Lanny A. Breuer, Assistant Attorney General for the Department of Justice’s (DOJ’s) Criminal Division, on issues related to holding contractors to a high standard, investigating fraud, awarding contracts to companies that have committed fraud against the federal government, and the suspension and debarment system. He went on to mention and cite POGO’s Federal Contractor Misconduct Database.

Mr. Breuer described the differences between the work performed by DOJ and suspension and debarment offices, and stated “I agree with your premise that if you commit a fraud against the United States you shouldn't have a right to continue doing business.” He also stated that he has three prosecutors in Iraq and Afghanistan (but I’m not sure if three prosecutors is enough).

New Podcast: Now It's "Personal": The Case of FCC v. AT&T Inc.

A new POGO podcast is now available.

The topic: corporate "personhood" and the Supreme Court case of Federal Communications Commission v. AT&T Inc.

During the conversation, we mention that POGO and good government allies filed a "friend of the court" brief for the case. That brief can be read here.

• Download the latest podcast
• Subscribe to POGO podcasts via iTunes
• Subscribe to POGO podcasts via RSS 

Blog posts on this topic:

• POGO Files "Friend of the Court" Brief in FCC v. AT&T
• Does a Corporate Entity Enjoy "Personal Privacy" When It Comes to FOIA?

Photograph by POGO's Pam Rutter.

Morning Smoke: Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission Disagrees About Bottom Line

 

Where there's smoke, there's fire. POGO's Morning Smoke is a collection of the previous day's investigations, scoops, and opinions related to the world of government oversight. Have a story you'd like to see included? Contact POGO's blog editor.

Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission to release report Thursday amid dissent on panel by Zachary A. Goldfarb and Brady Dennis [The Washington Post]

A push to quickly boost offshore drilling safety by Jennifer A. Dlouhy [Hearst Washington Bureau]

BP Oil Spill Report Spurs Congressional Inquiry -- and Claim of Stonewalling by Paul D. Thacker [Politics Daily]

Fed Faulted for Lax Mortgage Regulation Before Financial Crisis by Craig Torres and Lorraine Woellert [Bloomberg]

Goldman Sachs Got Billions From AIG For Its Own Account, Crisis Panel Finds by Shahien Nasiripour [HuffPost Reporting]

Bailout Watchdog Probes Suspected TARP Fraud at 64 Banks by Ben Hallman [Center for Public Integrity]

Bill to Make Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac Subject to FOIA Introduced by Scott Hodes [The FOIA Blog]

Regulators Move to Bolster Oversight of Hedge Funds by Ben Protess [DealBook]

Indictment Continues Obama Administration’s War on Leaks by Shane Harris [The Washingtonian]

New border surveillance project faces same problems that doomed SBInet by Aliya Sterstein [Nextgov]

The FDA And Its Pilot Pharma Fraud Program by Ed Silverman [Pharmalot]

Defense deputy lists department's needed reforms by Dave Majumdar [Federal Times]

Obama’s SOTU pulls punches on defense spending by Matthew Leatherman [The Will and the Wallet]

If A Dollar Falls in The Pentagon... by Colin Clark [DoD Buzz]

 

Did the White House Put Public Relations Before Science in the Oil Spill Report?

By Bryan Rahija

POGO was hoping President Obama would touch on several key reform topics in last night's State of the Union address, but one that we were keeping a particularly watchful eye for was the issue of scientific integrity.

That's partly because POGO recently unearthed internal emails suggesting that the White House placed public relations over science in last year's controversial report on the oil spill, which in fact was referred to as a "communication product" internally, according to the emails.

Morning Smoke: White House Spin Pollutes Oil Spill Report

Where there's smoke, there's fire. POGO's Morning Smoke is a collection of the previous day's investigations, scoops, and opinions related to the world of government oversight. Have a story you'd like to see included? Contact POGO's blog editor.

Congressman Accuses White House Of Putting Spin Above Science by Dan Froomkin [HuffPost Reporting]

E-mails show friction between White House, federal scientists over oil report [E&E News]

Financial Crisis Was Avoidable, Inquiry Finds by Sewell Chan [The New York Times]

Opinion: Due diligence for offshore drilling by Bob Graham and William K. Reilly [Politico]

U.S. inspector general calls for halt in funding $26 million Iraqi academy by Walter Pincus [The Washington Post]

House oversight committee to hear testimony from TARP watchdog by David S. Hilzenrath [The Washington Post]

Pentagon Cuts $6.9 Billion by Delaying Lockheed F-35s by Tony Capaccio [Bloomberg]

Audit: Military lacks overall plan for Afghan building projects by Walter Pincus [The Washington Post]

E-mails Suggest Bear Stearns Cheated Clients Out of Billions by Teri Buhl [The Atlantic]

Reader Email of the Day

By Bryan Rahija

A POGO reader offers a new term and definition for inclusion in the POGO glossary:

Public interest: Policy or action aimed at providing benefits to a broad public, rather than to a specific group of people. Benefiting the general public, a large class of persons, or the natural world. Possessing a common attribute of improving the common well-being and conditions of the people. Not something which only benefits one person or a small number of people at the expense of the general public or our environment. The interest of society. Often associated with collective action. For a public official, acting in the public interest means acting lawfully and/or in accordance with government policy under the direction of a top official. In the absence of legal or policy frameworks, it means acting for the common good of the community. Often, the public interest would not be pursued in any other way. For example, “public interest goals of utility regulation include: 1) inter-and intra-class and intergenerational equity); 2) the equal treatment of equals (horizontal equity); 3) balancing long- and short-term goals that have the potential to affect intergenerational balance; 4) protecting against the abuse of monopoly power; and 5) general protection of the health and welfare of the citizens of the state, nation, and world. Environmental and other types of social costs are subsumed under equity and health and welfare responsibilities.”  (Clean Energy Resource Teams)

As always, we'd welcome other readers' thoughts on this, or on other glossary entries.