Federal audit delayed at Gov. Bush's request shows state owes $267 million

[Nambe]

TALLAHASSEE (AP)

A federal audit that was delayed at the request of Gov. Jeb Bush's office during his re-election campaign found that Florida's public pension fund owes the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services $267 million. ---

The audit was originally scheduled to begin in April 2002, but Janet Rehnquist, daughter of U.S. Supreme Court Justice William Rehnquist and then the Health and Human Services inspector general, postponed the audit until July 2002 after receiving a call from Kathleen Shanahan, Bush's chief of staff.

Shanahan and Bush said the delay was requested because both Florida agencies that would be involved, the state's investment staff and its retirement division, were in the midst of leadership changes.

But Democrats, noting the delay insured the audit would not be finished until after November's election, contend Bush's office sought the delay to avoid negative publicity about the pension fund. ---

[Walt Starr]

1. Quid Pro Quo?

Seems to me a couple of somebodies should be doing prison time, one the governor of a prominent state and the other the daughter of a prominent member of the legal profession.

[Brucey]

2. Expect more

of the same kind of bullshit in 2004... we have our work cut out to beat this crowd... worse than Nixon.

[madfloridian]

3. Whoa! are they doing revisionist history? More like 3 billion!!

http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/03/12/bush.pension/

..."The "excessive" contributions totaled about $3 billion, and the federal share of that was about $517 million. The "primary cause" of that initial surplus was "exceptional investment performance," but the draft says the money must either be paid back or future contributions must be reduced..."

It was 517 million that was the government share. They owed out 3 billion in all. I need to check more on what you posted. They are changing it in mid-stream.

[denverbill]

4. Does Florida allow recall elections?

Sounds like a damned good excuse for this idiot to be recalled to me.

[okieinpain]

9. exactly what I was thinking. isn't this the excuse for recalling

davis. that he lied to the people about the size of the deficit.

[displacedtexan]

5. of course, today is the perfect time

to release this story.
it might make the crawls, but that's as far as it will go...
before it reaches the memory hole.

[Flat_Top]

6. of course, today is the perfect time, part 2

Today's media hyper-focus on the 9/11 rememberence is also probably the reason why the US Attorney in Houston choose today to annouce the first Enron inprisonment ... hide it in the weeds.

[kskiska]

7. If the wingnuts want to remove Gray Davis for this stuff

why not Jeb?

[Racenut20]

8. This would be the same pension fund

That continued to buy Enron stock after it hit the skids?????

[Judi Lynn]

10. Absolutely.

(snip) The GAO has also been investigating Rehnquist's decision to delay an audit into Florida's pension fund. That move assured that the audit wouldn't be released before election day last fall, when Bush was facing a tight race for re-election.

Internal HHS documents show that a draft audit would have been completed before Bush's re-election if the work had started on time. It was first scheduled to begin last April, but the governor's chief of staff called Rehnquist on April 15 to request a delay. Several postponements did delay the start for five months.

Rehnquist has said her decision to grant the delays "was based on the merits and not motivated by political reasons." A spokesman for the inspector general also argued that the audit would not have been completed by Election Day even if it had begun on time, though some documents suggest otherwise.

The issue may have been politically perilous for Bush, the president's brother. The Florida Board of Administration, which runs the pension fund, has been under scrutiny because it invested and lost $300 million in the bankrupt energy company Enron. The federal audit focused on whether the state properly accounted for U.S. contributions to the pension program. (snip/...)

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/03/04/politics/main542782.shtml

[Bandit]

11. What is amazing is it is released at all

National Security you know.