CONTRACTOR OVERSIGHT
Federal Contractor Misconduct Database Launched. POGO’s new and improved Federal Contractor Misconduct Database (FCMD) is putting contractor ethics on the front burner (H.R. 3033). Since the launch in July, 2007, the FCMD has been cited or used in dozens of news articles and popular blogs. The launch was announced in the New York Times. The FCMD has a large audience and is increasingly cited in media coverage.
Contracting Reforms Enacted In Legislation. Legislation aimed at enacting contracting reforms in three House bills and one Senate bill will replicate POGO’s recommendations. POGO remains engaged with both Members of Congress and their staff as a vital resource and voice in shaping contract and federal spending legislation.
Comments On Federal Regulatory Changes. This past year POGO submitted numerous public comments to federal agencies (including those on whistleblower protections at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and human trafficking provisions in government contracts) which were approved.
New Truman Commission. Congress passed legislation, co-sponsored by Senator Claire McCaskill and Senator Jim Webb, to establish an independent, bipartisan commission to investigate
U.S.
wartime contracting in
Iraq
and
Afghanistan
. The commission is modeled after a committee created by Harry Truman as a Senate freshman. Senator McCaskill praised POGO’s work in supporting these provisions along the support of other watchdog groups including: Taxpayers for Common Sense, the Government Accountability Project, OMBWatch, Common Cause, U.S. PIRG and
Iraq
and Afghanistan Veterans of America.
OPEN GOVERNMENT and ACCOUNTABILITY
Congressional Oversight Training Seminars Launched. From September 2006 to December 2007, POGO conducted eleven monthly bipartisan training seminars that included a combination of hands-on training and exercises, mock hearings, and case reviews. These training seminars are designed to provide a way for Congressional staff to learn how to conduct effective oversight and investigations.
The seminars have been led by some of the nation’s most well-regarded congressional oversight experts, government insiders and whistleblowers, investigative journalists, current and former Inspectors General, Government Accountability Office staff, and current and former congressional staff. Two hundred sixty five Congressional staffers have attended at least one of POGO’s seminars, and POGO awarded a certificate of completion to 17 staffers for attending every workshop.
Whistleblower Protections For Department Of Defense Personnel. POGO, working with the Make It Safe Coalition, worked to include in the final defense authorization legislation, the McCaskill-Collins amendment which provides whistleblower protections for employees of Defense Department contractors and grantees. It gives contractor employees the right to a jury trial in federal district court if they do not receive timely relief from the DoD Inspector General, or if relief is denied by the IG and agency head. It also increases protected channels for communicating concerns, including to the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction; broadens protected speech categories to include threats to public safety, gross mismanagement, and gross waste of DoD funds. It also places much-needed deadlines on the Department of Defense IG for investigating reprisal complaints.
Whistleblower Protections for Federal Employees. In March 2007, the House of Representatives passed comprehensive whistleblower protection legislation for the first time in more than ten years. In December, the Senate passed companion legislation. The bills repair the damage done to federal employee whistleblower protections by hostile judicial rulings. At the same time, the bill seeks to extend new protections to airport baggage screeners, government contractors, and national security employees. This legislation was based on recommendations made in POGO’s 2005 report, Homeland and National Security Whistleblowers: The Unfinished Agenda, the Make It Safe coalition and the national conference on whistleblower protections that POGO organized in collaboration with the National Security Whistleblowers Coalition.
Tackling Homeland Security Abuse of Secrecy. POGO successfully worked with 9/11 victim families to curtail the abuse of the Department of Homeland Security’s use of a secrecy marking called Sensitive Security Information.
Transportation Budget Secrecy. POGO, with our non-profit allies, Senator Coburn and the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee succeeded in preventing plans to cast a veil of secrecy over the Department of Transportation and other agencies’ budget justification which would have undermined attempts to challenge earmarks and also would have upset the Congressional budget process.
Federal Whistleblower Agency Placed Under Investigation. The Office of Special Counsel (OSC) became the subject of both Congressional and Office of Personnel Management Inspector General investigations following a complaint filed by POGO, the Government Accountability Project (GAP), and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). The groups had evidence of cronyism, mismanagement, and retaliation against whistleblowers within the OSC. This last issue is particularly egregious given that the agency’s own mission is to protect government whistleblowers.
DEFENSE AND NATIONAL SECURITY INVESTIGATIONS
Helicopter Requirements Weakened to Benefit Contractor. A POGO investigation, lasting several weeks, uncovered an improper requirements change in one of the Air Force’s largest acquisition programs (CSAR-X). It highlights the potential of a serious systemic blind spot in the Pentagon’s oversight of requirements for its weapons systems, where the interests of contracting officials may trump those of war fighters. Congress and the Air Force have met in response to POGO’s report, and the Air Force has already admitted that there was a lack of transparency in that phase of the acquisition process.
Missile Defense Investigation. Inside sources and leaked documents allowed POGO to publicly reveal that the Missile Defense Agency’s $1 billion Sea-Based X-Band Radar, the lynchpin of its tracking system, is considered to be significantly at risk in the harsh environment of the northern Pacific and that numerous missile defense silos were flooded due to incompetence on the part of the Missile Defense Agency and the Boeing Company.
F-22 Corrosion. The manufacturers of the Air Force’s newest fighter jet knew years ago that the composition of some mechanical access panels made the F-22 Raptor susceptible to corrosion. POGO has exposed numerous other problems with the Raptor, estimated to cost more than $130 million per plane, and which has been plagued by cost overruns and delays. POGO worked with the Salt Lake Tribune to expose that current major F-22 corrosion problems were actually discovered by the Air Force, fixed and unfixed by Lockheed Martin a decade ago.
MRAPs/Rapid Procurement System. POGO assisted a Marine Corps whistleblower in his efforts to alert Congress and the public to egregious delays in the Marine Corps rapid procurement system. As a result of POGO’s work with the media on this issue, a major House Armed Service Committee hearing was held on one of the systems that had been delayed, MRAPS (Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles); there were major increases in appropriations for MRAPs; and the Pentagon increased the vehicle’s acquisition priority. The Naval Audit Service also confirmed problems in the Marine Corps’ system.
NUCLEAR SECURITY INVESTIGATIONS
Nuclear Weapons Complex Begins to Shrink. In December, the Department of Energy made a major announcement of plans to consolidate the nuclear weapons complex, mirroring POGO's recommendations in its 2005 report, "U.S. Nuclear Weapons Complex: Homeland Security Opportunities." The plan is designed to create a nuclear weapons infrastructure that is smaller, safer, more secure and more cost effective. The Department of Energy has already begun moving all the bomb-making nuclear materials out of three of its sites, including the Lawrence Livermore Lab, which is in the heavily-populated San Francisco Bay area.
POGO Exposes Lax Security at Peachbottom Nuclear Power Plant. POGO provided technical assistance to a CBS news affiliate for a news series highlighting a whistleblower at the Peachbottom plant in Pennsylvania. The young contract security guard provided video of sleeping guards to the news outlet after his efforts to alert management about the safety issues were stymied. POGO also helped arrange for legal services for the whistleblower. The expose led to a meeting with officials and senior staff at the NRC. POGO used the case study as a way to instigate an Inspector General inquiry, and more importantly, moves at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to dramatically accelerate plans to increase nuclear security regulations as well as to improve the handling of future whistleblower concerns. Exelon recently fired The Wackenhut Corporation at all of its plants across the country and will replace them with an in-house security staff.
International Panels Addressed. In March 2007, POGO’s Peter Stockton and Princeton Professor Frank von Hippel presented their paper on the necessary consolidation of the U.S. nuclear weapons complex at an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) conference in Vienna, Austria. In their presentation, Mr. Stockton and Professor von Hippel highlighted the importance of adequately securing special nuclear materials (SNM)—highly enriched uranium (HEU) and plutonium (Pu)—from terrorists. They also used POGO’s role in getting a particularly dangerous nuclear weapons complex site de-inventoried of its SNM as an example for how non-governmental organizations (NGOs) can effectively assist governments in better nuclear materials. POGO and Professor von Hippel’s paper has been published in the Second report of the International Panel on Fissile Materials, GLOBAL Fissile Material Report 2007, www.fissilematerials.org.
