Highlights of POGO in the News
Articles & Stories Archive before 2007
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GOP's Davis Urges Bloch to Quit Special Counsel's Office, Washington Post, By Christopher Lee and Carrie Johnson, May 8, 2008.
A veteran Republican lawmaker called on Office of Special Counsel chief Scott J. Bloch to resign yesterday, one day after nearly two dozen FBI agents raided OSC headquarters and carted off boxes of documents and equipment that officials said were related to a probe of Bloch's activities.
"In light of the various investigations into Mr. Bloch's conduct, including the FBI probe revealed yesterday, it's hard to believe he can continue to operate effectively," Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (Va.), the top Republican on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said in a statement. "It's time the OSC put this turbulent period behind it." ...
Other critics have also called for Bloch's ouster, including the Project on Government Oversight (POGO) and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility -- both nonprofit groups -- and a lawyer representing several current and former OSC employees....
Bloch's critics contend that these probes are little more than an attempt by Bloch to deflect attention from his own troubles. "He's creating his own illusion of an investigation to counter the real one of himself," said Beverley Lumpkin, an investigator at POGO.
In an internal draft memo to Bloch dated Jan. 18, a group of OSC employees overseeing the Justice Department probe and others said OSC investigators turned up no evidence that any of the fired U.S. attorneys had been pressured to take actions meant to affect the 2006 election. That is the main question over which the OSC has jurisdiction. They recommended dropping the matter until Justice concluded an internal probe into the firings.
In the memo, obtained by POGO and made public yesterday, the employees expressed concerns that other probes, such as that involving the political briefings, were overly broad. They also said they had been denied permission to open investigations more squarely in the agency's jurisdiction. Mitchell, the OSC spokesman, said the agency did not have the resources to investigate everything at once.
Special counsel butted heads with staff over inquiries, Associated Press, By Lara Jakes Jordan, May 7, 2008.
U.S. Special Counsel Scott Bloch repeatedly butted heads with a task force he set up to decide whether to investigate high-profile accusations of political meddling by the Bush administration, draft documents released Wednesday show.
A look at 11 subject areas identified for potential investigation, however, shows no apparent partisan pattern or bias by Bloch in deciding whether his office would pursue accusations that political work was being done on government time and property.
Meanwhile, a Republican congressman on Wednesday joined liberal-leaning whistle-blower groups in demanding that Bloch resign immediately. A day earlier, Bloch's office and home were raided by federal agents as part of a criminal investigation into whether he destroyed evidence potentially showing he retaliated against his own staff.
The Office of Special Counsel is responsible for protecting the rights of federal workers and ensuring that government whistle-blowers are not subjected to reprisals.
"In light of the various investigations into Mr. Bloch's conduct, including the FBI probe revealed yesterday, it's hard to believe he can continue to operate effectively," Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., the top Republican on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said in a statement. "It's time the OSC put this turbulent period behind it and return to the important work of protecting federal whistle-blowers."
Bloch's attorney, Roscoe Howard, declined comment.
The new documents, released Wednesday by the watchdog group Project on Government Oversight, detail 11 subject areas the Office of Special Counsel's task force identified for potential investigation.....
Danielle Brian, POGO's executive director, called the document "deeply troubling new evidence of Bloch's misuse of his office."
FBI search, leaked documents lead to renewed calls for ousting of Scott Bloch, Government Executive, By Elizabeth Newell and Dan Friedman, May 7, 2008.
Whistleblower advocates and a key GOP lawmaker are renewing calls for the resignation or firing of Special Counsel Scott Bloch after Tuesday's raid of Bloch's home and office by the FBI and the release of OSC documents on Wednesday.
The Project on Government Oversight, a Washington-based watchdog group that has been calling for Bloch's removal for three years, released on Wednesday an internal OSC memo showing that Bloch repeatedly ignored the recommendations of a task force he had created to investigate sensitive and high-profile matters, and did not heed the group's warnings that he was demanding probes that were overly broad or outside OSC's jurisdiction.
The document, POGO said, supported its theory that the OSC chief had sought "to create the appearance of a conflict of interest with an ongoing investigation into allegations that Bloch himself had engaged in misconduct." ...
Neither the White House nor OSC returned calls for comment on Thursday. OSC spokesman Jim Mitchell said on Wednesday that the office was cooperating with the FBI, despite the fact that the raid was "really a surprise" and it was unclear exactly what the agents were looking for.
Special Counsel shut down probe of Siegelman case last year, WZTV Fox News
May 7, 2008
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The U.S. Office of Special Counsel last year shut down a previously undisclosed investigation into the federal prosecution of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman, according to an internal memo from the agency.
The investigation was being conducted by a Special Counsel task force formed a year ago to pursue high-profile political investigations in Washington. It began gathering information on the Siegelman case in September and was planning to request documents from the Justice Department in October before it was ordered to close the case, according to the Jan. 18 memo, made public by the Project on Government Oversight.
The investigation was one of many that the task force had taken up, and it was not the only one that the Special Counsel sought to shut down.
FBI raid on watchdog seeks records on Rice investigation, McClatchy-Tribune, May 7, 2008.
FBI agents investigating government watchdog Scott Bloch have subpoenaed any records that would reveal whether concerns about the 2004 elections prompted him to clear Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice of ethics violations....
The FBI is investigating whether Bloch obstructed justice by destroying computer files to hinder an outside inquiry into allegations that he retaliated against employees who opposed his policies. He's also suspected of making false statements to investigators.
FBI agents, who searched Bloch's office and home Tuesday, subpoenaed 17 of his current and former employees to appear before a federal grand jury and asked them to bring any documents related to possible tampering of records in the office's electronic investigative tracking system, McClatchy has learned.
Officials with knowledge of the investigation also told McClatchy that the FBI has subpoenaed records about the decision to assign Rice's case to an investigator. The officials asked to remain anonymous because they weren't authorized to discuss the investigation.
Bloch, whose lawyer also didn't return calls, has denied any wrongdoing. Bloch has said that he paid an outside company, Geeks on Call, about $1,100 in taxpayer money in 2006 to move files from his work computer.
He said that he feared a virus had contaminated his computer. As a result, he said, he instructed technicians to erase the hard drives of his computers and those of two former employees, but said he kept copies of the deleted files.
The Project on Government Oversight (POGO), an independent Washington watchdog group, accused Bloch of conducting "stunningly broad fishing expeditions" to create a false impression that he was being scrutinized only because of his aggressive investigations....
Case implicates free speech, Op-Ed by POGO's Nick Schwellenbach, SPI Seattle.com, May 7, 2008.
The King County Prosecutor's Office is pursuing a criminal case against a former Boeing employee with dangerous implications for whistle-blowers, the flying public and free speech rights.
After the first trial resulted in a hung jury a few weeks ago, King County prosecutors, will soon announce a second trial date for former Boeing quality assurance inspector Gerald Eastman. The prosecutors likely will charge Eastman with "computer trespass"-- a euphemism for Eastman's unauthorized whistle-blowing to the media, which is not an illegal act. Jurors in the first trial were conflicted about the judge's instructions not to consider the issue of whistle-blowing.
Most of Eastman's concerns related to the safety implications of what he considered poor quality assurance at Boeing. While Eastman clearly violated Boeing policy, the criminal charges against him raise serious issues, especially in regards to the First Amendment right of free speech.
In other words, it is one thing to fire a whistle-blower for breaking company policies, quite another to try to jail one for the act of whistle-blowing, which is protected by law.
"Bringing criminal charges in this type of case is a very extreme reaction. However, it is another example of the disturbing trend of punishing whistle-blowers with criminal prosecution," said Dave Colapinto, a partner with the whistle-blower law firm Kohn, Kohn and Colapinto, which runs the National Whistleblower Center.
Eastman is not alone in his concerns about quality control and accountability. In 2000, a Federal Aviation Administration special technical audit on Boeing's production and quality problems, found "in some cases, manufacturing planning was not adequate, requirements were not followed, inspections were not specific or personnel were not knowledgeable about requirements."
Eastman's whistle-blowing came from his belief that Boeing had not adequately resolved the issues found in this FAA audit. He perceived that the practice of "roller-stamping" was widespread. Roller-stamping is approving work as complete without performing a thorough check.
In addition, an internal January 2004 Boeing document titled "Status Report: Investigation of 'Dual Failures' " underscored Eastman's concern. It states, "There appears to be a systemic issue within BCA (Boeing Commercial Aircraft) involving parallel process breakdowns of mechanics and inspectors involved in assembling and inspecting aircraft, assemblies and parts."
The FAA also examined 55 issues at Boeing between 2002 and 2003 and found that "24 percent of these issues have involved instances where the mechanic and inspector created and accepted nonconforming conditions."
And, in February 2008, the Department of Transportation IG issued a report of all the major aerospace manufacturers, including Boeing, faulting them for their quality assurance systems for their suppliers.
The employment consequences for Eastman's breaking company policy have been severe. A second round of a dubious criminal prosecution threatens to ruin this man's life and further hurt his family. But the issue is greater than that.
Does a whistle-blower have a First Amendment right to inform the public in a manner that should be considered protected speech without being jailed? If Boeing and King County prosecutors get their way, the future for whistle-blowers and the public is grim.
Nick Schwellenbach is an investigator at the Project On Government Oversight (POGO; pogo.org), a Washington, D.C.-based non-profit that works with whistle-blowers.
FBI agents search special counsel's home and office, Reuters, By James Vicini and Andy Sullivan, May 6, 2008.
FBI agents on Tuesday raided the office and home of the U.S. official responsible for protecting whistleblowers, as they investigated whether he has mistreated employees and obstructed justice.
Agents were looking for evidence that Special Counsel Scott Bloch had obstructed the investigation and retaliated against career employees, federal law enforcement officials said. … Critics also say Bloch announced investigations against the White House to protect himself politically.
Watchdog groups said they were pleased to see visible progress in the years-long investigation.
"It's an extraordinary irony that you've got a guy whose job it is to protect whistleblowers, but all of this began because he was retaliating against whistleblowers in his own shop," said Danielle Brian, executive director of the Project on Government Oversight, a Washington watchdog group.
Bill Could Give Inspectors General Added Independence, The Legal Intelligencer, By Marcia Coyle, 4, Volume 237; Issue 88, May 6, 2008.
Congress is close to enacting the most significant boost in three decades in the independence of the cadre of government watchdogs — federal inspectors general — but the lawmakers have retreated from a key change involving the U.S. Department of Justice.
The Senate on April 23 approved, by unanimous consent, S. 2324, the Inspector General Reform Act of 2008. But the bill passed only after the lawmakers agreed to an amendment by Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., which, among other items, deleted a provision giving the Justice Department's Office of Inspector General (OIG) jurisdiction to investigate misconduct allegations against department attorneys, including its most senior officials.
Unlike all other OIGs who can investigate misconduct within their entire agency, the Justice Department's OIG must refer allegations against department attorneys to the department's Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR). The latter office, unlike the OIG, is not statutorily independent and reports directly to the attorney general and the deputy attorney general.
The House last October passed a substantially similar bill — H.R. 928 — by a vote of 404-11. The House bill, sponsored by Representative James Cooper, D-Tenn., eliminates the requirement that Justice's OIG refer attorney misconduct allegations to OPR.
Both bills normally would be referred now to a joint House-Senate conference committee to resolve the differences. But congressional sources say there will be no formal conference. Given the political climate on Capitol Hill, they explain, the House is likely to vote on the Senate bill as the most politically expedient way to get the proposed reforms to the president's desk. … "I think we should lock in these improvements and leave to a future Congress further improvements."
Danielle Brian, executive director of the Project on Government Oversight, a nonprofit, good-government group that has worked to improve the inspector general system, agreed with Cooper.
The DOJ issue, she said, is a "lingering problem that has got to be addressed." There is a "clear conflict, a real problem," with OPR investigating allegations against the very officials to whom it reports, she said.
That conflict emerged dramatically when former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales directed OPR to investigate the firings of certain U.S. attorneys — a matter involving the conduct of the attorney general and the deputy attorney general. Inspector General Glenn Fine objected and eventually his office and OPR agreed to a joint investigation.
"The whole bill was held up because of this issue," said Brian. "We hope the Justice Department problem is not forgotten now that the legislation is passing." … Brian of the Project on Government Oversight said her group has been talking with senior Justice Department officials about two possible changes that could be done administratively: giving OIG jurisdiction over allegations involving the attorney general and deputy attorney general, and requiring OPR to give notice to OIG when investigations are opened.
"We've been told this could be done with the stroke of a pen," she said, adding that it would be a "Band-Aid approach" until Congress acts.
This article originally appeared in the National Law Journal, a publication of ALM.
FBI raids special counsel’s office, Federal Times, By Gregg Carlstrom, May 6, 2008.
FBI agents raided the office of Special Counsel Scott Bloch this morning, seizing computers and documents as part of an ongoing investigation of the office.
The raid was confirmed by Jim Mitchell, a spokesman for the Office of Special Counsel. Mitchell told Federal Times that the FBI agents had wide-ranging grand jury subpoenas, covering not just computers but investigative reports and files from closed cases.
“We don’t know what this is about,” Mitchell said.
The Office of Personnel Management’s inspector general since 2005 has been investigating allegations that Bloch retaliated against OSC employees who opposed his policies and that he threw out whistleblower cases without evaluating their merits. OSC is responsible for protecting federal whistleblowers from reprisals.
More recently, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee began investigating Bloch’s hiring of an outside company to erase data from his computer.
A spokesman for the FBI declined to comment, or confirm the raid, calling it part of an ongoing investigation.
But critics of the Office of Special Counsel took the opportunity to criticize Bloch’s tenure at the agency. The Project on Government Oversight, a nonprofit watchdog group, said it was “especially interested” in the FBI’s findings. POGO is investigating how OSC handled complaints from whistleblowers at the Federal Air Marshal Service. …
Review shows NASA employees bought seemingly personal items, The Associated Press, May 4, 2008.
NASA employees have used government credit cards to buy items such as iPods, video games and jewelry, and they've sidestepped competitive bidding rules designed to save taxpayers money on large purchases, a newspaper reported Sunday.
The Houston Chronicle analyzed 451,000 charges, totaling more than $265 million, made on NASA purchase cards between January 2004 and July 2007. The newspaper also reviewed audits, internal reports and other documents related to card use.
The NASA records provided to the Chronicle do not explain justifications for the purchases, or even the specific items bought. Most transactions were made to vendors that appear to sell legitimate business items. … "That should send up a red flag," said Scott Amey, general counsel of the Project on Government Oversight, a government watchdog organization. "You have to ask: Is somebody trying to get around competitive requirements?"
NASA employees big spenders on government credit, The Houston Chronicle, By Chase Davis, May 3, 2008.
NASA employees have used government credit cards to ring up iPods, video games and even clothes from the agency's own gift shop, while at other times using the cards in ways that sidestep competitive bidding rules, federal documents and a Chronicle review of agency records show.
The review comes at a time when Congress is considering tightening purchase card regulations across government, after a federal report last month that found widespread abuse in government credit card programs, including charges that did not follow policies to prevent waste and fraud.
Internal investigations have for years uncovered similar problems within NASA, which has long been criticized for poor financial management, even as the agency has pleaded with Congress for billions of dollars to fuel new manned missions into space. …
"That should send up a red flag," said Scott Amey, general counsel of the Project on Government Oversight, a government watchdog organization. "You have to ask: Is somebody trying to get around competitive requirements?" …
BAE technology may have been 'compromised', says Pentagon, The Independent, By Danny Fortson, May 3, 2008.
A war of words has broken out between BAE Systems and the US government after a report by the Pentagon inspector general found that sensitive weapons technology linked to a major fighter jet programme may have been "compromised" due to allegedly lax oversight by the UK defence company.
The report didn't cite a single instance of leaks from the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) programme, the largest defence project in the world. It is being led by Lockheed Martin, the US defence giant, along with several foreign groups, including BAE. But the report said: "The advanced aviation and weapons technology for the JSF programme may have been compromised by unauthorised access at facilities and in computers at BAE Systems, and incomplete contractor oversight may have increased the risk of unintended or deliberate release of information to foreign competitors."
Access to military technology has been a sticking point throughout the project, especially given that BAE is developing a rival jet, the Eurofighter Typhoon. The report was published after the Project on Government Oversight, a watchdog, got access to it through a Freedom of Information Act request.…
Increasing reliance on private contractors in Iraq raises questions, Chattanooga Times Free Press, By Lauren Gregory, May 2, 2008.
Over the past few days, Chattanooga Police Department Officer Ricky Ballard has been waking up early morning and going to bed late, hoping to soak up as much of the city as he can — because after he leaves next week for Iraq, he’ll treasure the atmosphere here more than ever.
“I know that once I get to Iraq, it will be all desert and broken buildings,” said the 34-year-old police academy training instructor.
But Officer Ballard is not being deployed to the war zone with the U.S. military. The 12-year department veteran is choosing to halt a promising career in local law enforcement to join the ranks of a private security firm contracted to work for the federal government.
It is a popular job even during the fifth year of the Iraq war, and the government has become more reliant than ever on the support these contracted firms provide, said Charlie Cray, director of the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Corporate Policy and co-founder of Halliburton Watch. … Scott Amey, general counsel for the Project on Government Oversight, also in Washington, D.C., said the expansion historically is unique because it has led to the government handing jobs to civilians that traditionally have been under the military’s purview, such as interrogation and translation.
“There has been a movement that we need more war fighters than we need behind-the-scenes-type people (in the military),” Mr. Amey said.
But he said several analysts and policy-makers in Washington have been questioning this new concept, especially in light of the fact that employees of private companies have very little oversight or accountability compared to military personnel.
Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice introduced new measures for increased oversight of contractors in October 2007, addressing questions raised after a deadly September shooting in Baghdad involving employees of Blackwater USA. The new rules dictated that employees in the war zone would follow military directives.
But there still are issues of accountability, Mr. Amey said, because it still is unclear whether private employees fall under military law, Iraqi law or U.S. law when they must be disciplined for misconduct in combat zones.
“There are things somebody in the Army can be accountable for, but the person sitting next to them won’t because they work for contractor X,” he said. …
Security of F-35 Jet Secrets Questioned, Washington Post, By Dana Hedgpeth, May 2, 2008.
The technology going into the U.S. military's newest fighter plane may have been compromised by unauthorized access to facilities and computers that belong to BAE Systems, one the aircraft's builders, according to a report from the Pentagon's inspector general made public yesterday.
The report did not identify specific leaks, but it said "incomplete" Pentagon oversight may have increased "the risk of unintended or deliberate release of information to foreign competitors."
BAE, based in Farnborough, England, is one of two main subcontractors working on the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and is building some of the plane's electronic and weapons systems and parts of its body. Bethesda-based Lockheed Martin is the lead contractor on the roughly $300 billion program, which is being developed by the United States and eight foreign partners, including Britain. Northrop Grumman of Los Angeles is the project's other main subcontractor.
In working on major aircraft, contractors have to share sensitive and classified information, and the government has safeguards in place for the use of it.
The Project on Government Oversight (POGO), a watchdog group, filed a Freedom of Information Act request for the inspector general's report, which was done to ensure that controls over classified technology and information on the F-35 were adequate and were being followed by the Defense Department. The report, which was completed in March, looked at selected data that related to the F-35 and found that the "government and its contractors appropriately controlled the export of classified [Joint Strike Fighter] technology to foreign companies."
But the report criticized the Defense Department, saying it "did not always employ sufficient controls to evaluate potential unauthorized access to classified U.S. technology" on the F-35 program. The department's Defense Security Service, which is supposed to help oversee the program, didn't monitor BAE or evaluate its security systems, according to the report.
The DSS also couldn't verify whether BAE had submitted required security audit reports for 2001 to 2003, the report said. As a result, the Defense Department's "advanced aviation and weapons technology in the [Joint Strike Fighter] program may have been compromised by unauthorized access at facilities and in computers at BAE Systems," according to the 55-page report, which had 16 pages blacked out.
In addition, the report said, BAE maintained that information in its internal audits was "privileged and not available" to the government, although there was a "special security agreement" that the contractor was to submit such reports to the Defense Department for review. The DSS did not question BAE's assertion that the reports were off-limits to the government.
"This is government information, and BAE is stiff-arming the Pentagon," said Nick Schwellenbach, national security investigator for POGO. "DSS failed in its oversight role to ensure that security improved. It is unknown if classified information was compromised, but it may have been, and if it was, weak Pentagon oversight was a contributing factor."…
Security Progress in Baghdad Draws Entrepreneurs, NPR: Morning Edition, May 1, 2008.
STEVE INSKEEP, host: Oh, if you’re fed up with the American stock market or the real estate market, consider this attractive business opportunity: plans for an amusement park, a four-star hotel, apartment buildings, an infrastructure for a dozen cities. But there are risks, namely mortar, rocket and small arms fire, occasional car bombings, and kidnappings. Baghdad is attracting a small, but growing number of what you might call adventure capitalists, as NPR’s Eric Westervelt reports.
ERIC WESTERVELT: Al-Zawra Park and Zoo, the sprawling complex in the heart of Baghdad, is open again, it’s ramshackle playgrounds and decrepit coffee shops slowly lurching back to life. But Los Angeles entrepreneur Llewellyn Werner has a bigger vision: a $500 million Disney-style water park. In a conference room in Zawra Park, he pitches his plan to a deputy Baghdad Mayor.
Mr. LLEWELLYN WERNER (Entrepreneur): In Disneyland, they shoot the water into the air as a mist, and they project pictures on the water, and the people go oh, my gosh. I can’t believe this. We’re going to do the same thing here. It’s very exciting. …
WESTERVELT: Watchdog groups are concerned too about Iraq’s notoriously corrupt ministries and business culture, and the spotty track record of some America firms in Iraq. U.S. Congressional investigators allege that as much as $10 billion charged by U.S. contractors for Iraq reconstruction was ill-spent or questionable. As Scott Amey with the Project on Government Oversight put it, quote, “The question is whether a private company can do what the federal government can’t - adequately oversee the contracts and reconstruction efforts to ensure that money isn’t wasted and that the Iraqi people benefit from the investment,” end quote.
And Iraqis investigating Iraqi government corruption here continue to be targeted. On Tuesday, the Director of the Iraqi Ministry of Labor was assassinated in a roadside bombing as he left his Baghdad home. Abdullah al- Lami was in charge of the ministries reconstruction department and was investigating corruption in the ministry.
Back at the business pitch meeting, Llewellyn Werner hopes to see a thousand skateboards bloom in Baghdad.
Fighter jet program may have compromised secret technology, AP, By Joelle Tessler, May 1, 2008.
Lax Pentagon oversight may have led to the compromise of classified aviation and weapons technology from the Joint Strike Fighter program at facilities owned by British defense contactor BAE Systems, according to Defense Department investigators.
In a report made public Thursday, the Pentagon's Inspector General found that the Defense Security Service, an arm of the Pentagon that works with government contractors to safeguard classified information, did not do enough to prevent unauthorized access to sensitive Joint Strike Fighter program technology at BAE facilities and computers. The report did not cite any actual breaches of information.
BAE, the largest foreign defense contractor serving the U.S. military, is a major subcontractor on the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. Lockheed Martin Corp. of Bethesda, Md., is the lead contractor on the program, one of the most expensive in Pentagon history.
The Pentagon recently put the cost of the Joint Strike Fighter program at $298.8 billion. The military plans to purchase 2,443 of the fighter jets for the Air Force, Navy and Marines.
The Inspector General report was released in March but made public on Thursday in response to requests under the Freedom of Information Act, including one by the Project on Government Oversight.
The report found that while Defense Security officials did conduct security reviews at BAE facilities, they did not properly monitor and evaluate BAE audit reports on the company's security controls for 2004 and 2005. The report also found that the Defense Security Service discarded older BAE security reports, making it impossible to determine whether security weaknesses identified in 2001, 2002 and 2003 had been resolved. And it found that Pentagon officials deferred to BAE when the contractor refused to provide access to information from internal security audits.
Nick Schwellenbach, national security investigator for the Project on Government Oversight, said the Inspector General report raises concerns about whether the Pentagon is doing enough to ensure that sensitive and classified military technology is safeguarded by foreign defense contractors. The issue is becoming more relevant, he added, since the Pentagon is increasingly turning to foreign contractors to work on major weapons and procurement programs. …
Stealth Fighter Security 'May Have Been Compromised' (Updated), Wired News, By Noah Shachtman, May 1, 2008.
The Defense Department hasn't kept close enough watch over the contractors working on its most important aircraft program, the Joint Strike Fighter. And as a result, "the advanced aviation and weapons technology for the JSF program may have been compromised," the Department of Defense's Inspector General notes in a report, obtained by the Project on Government Oversight.
The Pentagon is working with eight other countries to build a single, stealthy, single-engine fighter that is supposed to be a low-cost replacement for a huge variety of aircraft -- the A-10, F-16, F/A-18, even the British Harrier jump jets. More than 2,400 JSFs are planned over the next several decades, at a cost of $337 billion.
But monitoring the 1,200 contractors working on the planes has proved to be a herculean effort for the Pentagon's Defense Security Service, or DSS. The Inspector General's report doesn't list any specific cases of classified information breaches. But it does state, repeatedly, that the DSS cut regulatory corners, meant to protect the stealth jet's secrets. "DoD [Department of Defense] did not always employ sufficient controls to evaluate and correct potential unauthorized access to classified U.S. technology," the report observes.
In particular, the audit found problems with how the Defense Department oversaw BAE Systems, the London-based arms-maker. Defense Security Service officials conducted security reviews at BAE Systems facilities. But the didn't bother to check up on the company's internal audits -- reports that would have "help[ed] the Defense Security Service to evaluate and address potential security weaknesses at BAE Systems, the primary foreign-owned contractor supporting the strike fighter program." … In fact, BAE Systems appeared to reject requests for the security reports, saying that "all information contained in the internal audits was privileged and not available to the Government, despite the requirement in the SSA [Special Security Agreement] that the contractor submits those reports to DoD [Department of Defense] for review and appropriate action. DSS did not challenge BAE Systems' claim that the internal audits are privileged and not subject to Government review. Rather than treating contractors' audit reports as useful tools to complement the industrial security assessments, DSS classifies all contractor reports as "routine correspondence" and destroys them after two years.
"How can the Pentagon security agency allow BAE, its contractor, to deny access to these security records?" Nick Schwellenbach, a Project on Government Oversight national security investigator, asked in a statement. "This is government information and BAE is stiff-arming the Pentagon."
Pentagon inspector faults U.S. oversight of BAE, Reuters, By Jim Wolf, May 1, 2008.
U.S. technology going into the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter aircraft may have been compromised by unauthorised access at facilities and computers belonging to BAE Systems (BAES.L: Quote, Profile, Research), the Pentagon's inspector general said in a report made public on Thursday.
The report did not cite any examples of any feared leaks, but said "incomplete" Pentagon oversight may have boosted the risk of unintended or deliberate release of information to foreign competitors.
BAE, headquartered in Farnborough, England, is the biggest overseas contractor working on the Lockheed Martin Corp (LMT.N: Quote, Profile, Research)-led F-35, which is being developed by the United States and eight foreign partners, including Britain.
BAE also plays a key role in developing the competing Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft, said the report obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by the Project on Government Oversight, a private watchdog group.
"The advanced aviation and weapons technology for the JSF program may have been compromised by unauthorised access at facilities and in computers at BAE Systems, and incomplete contractor oversight may have increased the risk of unintended or deliberate release of information to foreign competitors," said the Pentagon's Office of Inspector General. …
Pentagon Didn't Safeguard Tech At BAE Facilities -Govt Report, Dow Jones International News, May 1, 2008.
Government investigators concluded that the Pentagon didn't properly safeguard classified aviation and weapons technology at facilities owned by BAE Systems PLC (BAESY) for at least a two-year period.
In a report made public Thursday, the Pentagon's Inspector General found that the Defense Security Service didn't do enough to prevent unauthorized access to sensitive Joint Strike Fighter program technology at BAE facilities and computers. The Defense Security Service is an arm of the Pentagon that works with government contractors to protect classified information.
The report didn't cite any actual breaches of information. … The Inspector General report was released in March but made public Thursday in response to requests under the Freedom of Information Act, including one by the Project on Government Oversight….
Nick Schwellenbach, national security investigator for the Project on Government Oversight, said the Inspector General report is significant because the Pentagon is increasingly turning to foreign contractors to work on major weapons and procurement programs.
Billions for Pentagon Failures, The Washington Independent, By Matthew Blake, May 1, 2008.
In 1995, Army Maj. Gen. Robert H. Scales was playing war games in order to determine what military combat might look like in 25 years. In the process, he created "Future Combat Systems," a weapons system made up of unmanned ground and air vehicles that would be directed by computers at an Army base.
Thirteen years later, the technology to realize Scales' vision still isn't available. That hasn't stopped the Pentagon from spending more than $20 billion for Boeing, SAIC and 550 other contractors and subcontractors to work on "Future Combat Systems." The original contract estimated the total cost at $15 billion.
Paul L. Francis, Government Accountability Office's director of acquisitions, told The Washington Post in December that the weapons system is finally making progress. "They're getting to the point that they should have been at in 2003," Francis said.
Future Combat Systems is one of 95 Pentagon weapons programs that have resulted in $295 billion in cost overruns, according to a GAO report released last month. A congressional hearing Tuesday about the report made clear that uncontrolled Pentagon spending is a decades-old problem that may take just as long to reverse.
But the problem has grown worse over the past 10 years with the creation of of programs based on unrealized technology, like "Future Combat Systems." These post-Cold War programs were based on still-undeveloped technology and were, until now, subject to little Pentagon or congressional oversight. …
But others say that bipartisan scrutiny could finally threaten the most wasteful contracts contained in the $515.4 billion Pentagon budget that Bush sent to Congress in February "It really helps in Congress, if these issues are bipartisan," said Nick Schwellenbach, an investigator at the Project on Government Oversight. "Democrats had to reform welfare and it takes a Republican to reform national security."
McCaskill Asks Committee Leadership to Protect IGs in Defense Authorization Bill, Senator McCaskill Press Release, April 28, 2008.
U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill today urged the leaders of the Senate Armed Services Committee to take action to help preserve the independence of inspectors general (IG) at the Department of Defense. McCaskill, in a letter to Chairman Carl Levin and Ranking Member John McCain, requested that language guaranteeing IGs receive independent legal counsel be included in the Fiscal Year 2009 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The committee leadership is preparing to release the legislation early this week and the full committee will begin debating and amending the bill on Wednesday. McCaskill has spent the last year pushing for new protections for IGs, including introducing comprehensive IG reform legislation. Her bipartisan reform bill, which included language requiring independent legal counsel for IGs, passed the Senate last week. … Two of our finest independent watchdog groups, the Project on Government Oversight (POGO) and the Government Accountability Project (GAP) have long championed the need for independent legal advice for Inspectors General. It is my understanding that both have called for greater independence for counsel at the DoD IG.…
Former D.C. Workers Say Law Doesn't Prevent Retaliation, Washington Post, By Yolanda Woodlee, April 28, 2008.
Two years ago, Audrick Payne, an elevator inspector for the D.C. Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs, testified before the D.C. Council that he shut down two poorly operating elevators in the city's own offices at One Judiciary Square. In fact, he later said, half of the 10,000 elevators in the city did not have valid licenses.
For months, Toby Cooper, a senior executive at the D.C. Lottery, complained about a co-worker who she said touched her inappropriately, asked her embarrassing personal questions and warned her not to tell his wife. When he refused to stop the advances, she filed a sexual harassment complaint against him.
Stephen P. Amos, a former employee of the D.C. Department of Transportation, claimed in a recent lawsuit that when he exposed improper city road contracts, his boss threatened to have him escorted from the building.
All three former city workers say they are whistle-blowers who were fired for reporting illegal and unethical behavior and hazardous conditions, in violation of the D.C. Whistleblower Reinforcement Act, which offers protection from retaliation. Other D.C. employees who have reported wrongdoing say they've been terminated, threatened and ostracized. Lawyers and advocates of whistle-blowers say that despite the law, employers still retaliate. … Danielle Brian, executive director of the Project on Government Oversight, a watchdog organization that works with federal government whistle-blowers, said: "One of the hidden dangers of being a whistle-blower is that the bureaucracy doesn't forget what you've done. The long-term danger, if you survive, is you always have to watch over your shoulder because they're going to get you." …
Federal Credit Cards Accountability - Feds Gone Wild, Imperial Valley News, April 27, 2008
Recent media reports regarding the abuse of government credit cards, prompted by the release of a Senate report on Monday, April 7, shines a fresh light on a problem.
Over the years, purchase card holders have bought Atlanta Braves tickets, Victoria 's Secret merchandise, jewelry, cell phones, tires, escort services, and in one instance, we found an inventive federal employee who purchased breast enhancement surgery for his girlfriend.
The following are some of Project on Government Oversight's (POGO) previous recommendations for addressing purchase card abuses.
* Congress should require additional guidance to improve the management of the government’s purchase card program.
* The government should consistently implement purchase card program internal controls.
* Purchase cards should only be issued to individuals who have a documented need to acquire items for the government.
* Purchase card accounts should be conditional on cardholders receiving training on the program’s key internal controls, which should reduce fraudulent and abusive purchases.
* No cardholder should be their own authorizing official.
* Agencies should confirm that approving officials review cardholder support and certify monthly statements.
Tracking the Spoils of the Private Sector, The New York Times, Editorial, April 27, 2008.
There are so many barn doors to be closed on the Bush administration’s wasteful, murky world of government contractors that Congress barely knows where to begin. The House has made a start in plugging the multibillion-dollar loophole that the White House let slip into its promised crackdown on fraudulent contractors.
An executive mandate that contracted companies report misuse of taxpayers’ dollars to the Justice Department somehow managed to exempt work performed overseas. A drafting error, says the White House. But one, of course, that would further insulate the administration’s favored war contractors from ever answering for waste and fraud. There have been dozens of offenses, including kickbacks and bribes in Iraq and Afghanistan, where more than $102 billion has been spent on contracts. The Senate must approve the loophole closer.
The House voted as well to address another long-running boondoggle: the brazen failure of contractors to pay federal taxes, even as they are enriched by taxpayers in winning government business. More than 60,000 federal contractors owe $7.7 billion in back taxes, according to the Government Accountability Office. Almost half of the deadbeats are defense contractors who owe the Treasury $3 billion. Anyone shocked? The House bill would prevent seriously delinquent contractors from getting fresh federal deals at home or abroad, as they now routinely do.
These abuses only hint at the contractors’ lucrative universe, which has never been properly mapped. A third measure approved by the House would create a comprehensive database to try to track and monitor the federal procurement system. Right now, this is a willy-nilly nonsystem in which separate government agencies burned by bum contractors lack an efficient clearinghouse to swap warnings. Habitual scofflaws keep scoring contracts.
The database, proposed by Representative Carolyn Maloney of New York, is modeled after one pioneered effectively by the Project on Government Oversight, a nonprofit watchdog. The project’s database on the top 50 federal contractors has found they have paid $12 billion in fines and settlements in more than 350 instances of misconduct since 1995. Risky offenders find no shortage of new government plums. …
Investigators: Millions in Iraq contracts never finished, Associated Press, By Hope Yen, April 27, 2008.
Millions of dollars of lucrative Iraq reconstruction contracts were never finished because of excessive delays, poor performance or other factors, including failed projects that are being falsely described by the U.S. government as complete, federal investigators say.
The audit released Sunday by Stuart Bowen Jr., the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, provides the latest snapshot of an uneven reconstruction effort that has cost U.S. taxpayers more than $100 billion. It also comes as several lawmakers have said they want the Iraqis to pick up more of the cost of reconstruction.
The special IG's review of 47,321 reconstruction projects worth billions of dollars found that at least 855 contracts were terminated by U.S. officials before their completion, primarily because of unforeseen factors such as violence and excessive costs. About 112 of those agreements were ended specifically because of the contractors' actual or anticipated poor performance. … Danielle Brian, executive director of the watchdog group Project on Government Oversight, said the latest audit report points to significant U.S. taxpayer waste in current reconstruction efforts.
"The report paints a depressing picture of money being poured into failed Iraq reconstruction projects — contractors are killed, projects are blown up just before being completed, or the contractor just stops doing the work," she said.
Air Force Will Not Establish CSAR-X Contract Award Date, Inside the Air Force, By Jason Simpson, April 25, 2008.
The Air Force is not establishing any type of contract award date for the highly coveted next-generation combat search and rescue helicopter replacement program, according to a service statement regarding the release of the sixth amendment to the program's Request for Proposals.
Prior to the release of the finalized version of the amendment, industry officials said the contract award was expected in October, a three-month slip from a previous July target date set by the Air Force. … Spurred by a Project on Government Oversight review in November 2007, the Defense Department inspector general is set to audit changes in key performance parameters made prior to the original contract award to Boeing.
What Nuclear Renaissance?, The Nation, By Christian Parenti, April 24, 2008. [This article appeared in the May 12, 2008 edition of The Nation.]
If you listen to the rhetoric, nuclear power is back. Smashing atoms will replace burning carbon-based coal, gas and oil. In the face of a disaster movie-like future of runaway climate change--bringing drought, floods, famine and social breakdown--carbon-free nukes are cast as the deus ex machina to save us at the last minute.
Even a few greens support nuclear power--most famously James Lovelock, father of the Gaia theory. In the popular press, discussion of nuclear energy is dominated by its boosters, thanks in part to sophisticated industry PR.
In an effort to jump-start a "nuclear renaissance," the Bush Administration has pushed one package of subsidies after another. For the past two years a program of federal loan guarantees has sat waiting for utilities to build nukes. Last year's appropriations bill set the total amount on offer at $18.5 billion. And now the Lieberman-Warner climate change bill is gaining momentum and will likely accrue amendments that will offer yet more money.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) expects up to thirty applications to be filed to build atomic plants; five or six of those proposals are moving through the complicated multi-stage process. But no new atomic power stations have been fully licensed or have broken ground. And two newly proposed projects have just been shelved. … "The NRC falls all over itself to facilitate the industry," says Ray Shadis, a consultant who has worked for both environmental groups and on NRC panels and research projects. The Project on Government Oversight and other watchdog groups point to a revolving door between the commission's staff and the nuclear industry. To take just one example, in 2007 former commissioner Jeffrey Merrifield joined the Shaw Group after spending his last months on the commission pushing to ease restrictions for precisely the type of construction activities that were the Shaw Group's specialty.
Diana Sidebotham, an antinuclear activist in Putney, Vermont, twenty miles north of the Vermont Yankee plant, thinks Entergy and the NRC are courting disaster. In 1971 Sidebotham helped found the New England Coalition on Nuclear Pollution, and she has been trying to shut down nuclear plants ever since. Her hillside farm looks out over the ridge lines of the Connecticut River Valley. …
Maloney Federal Contractor Oversight Bill Passes House; Sen. McCaskill Introduces Companion Legislation, Congressional Documents and Publications U.S. Senate Documents, April 23, 2008.
The "Contractors and Federal Spending Accountability Act" (H.R. 3033), legislation introduced by Congresswoman Carolyn B. Maloney (D-NY) to create a comprehensive, centralized database that would more efficiently monitor the federal procurement system and help protect U.S. taxpayer dollars, passed the House today. Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO) also introduced the Senate companion of the bill today. Currently, no central database exists to help procurement officials track fraudulent contractors who do business with the federal government. … The United States is the largest purchaser of goods and services in the world, spending more than $419 billion on procurement awards in Fiscal Year 2006 alone. Yet, the federal government's watchdogs - federal suspension and debarment officials - lack the information they need to protect taxpayer dollars; there is no centralized, comprehensive, government-wide method to account for the performance of U.S. contractors. Beyond a list of currently debarred or suspended contractors, federal procurement officials are currently limited to their individual agency's knowledge of a contractor's track record, press reports, and personal contacts with other agencies when making decisions about awarding future federal contracts.
Right now, contractors that have repeatedly violated federal law still receive millions of dollars in contracts from the federal government. In fact, according to data from the Project on Government Oversight (POGO), the top 50 federal contractors have paid approximate