Your Taxpayer Dollars Down the Drain: Bush Appointee Cutting Budget for Finding Waste and Fraud

[Omaha Steve]

http://blog.aflcio.org/2006/12/04/your-taxpayer-dollars-down-the-drain-bush-appointee-cutting-budget-for-finding-waste-and-fraud/

Your Taxpayer Dollars Down the Drain: Bush Appointee Cutting Budget for Finding Waste and Fraud

by Mike Hall, Dec 4, 2006

In June, the former chief of staff of the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA), David Safavian, was convicted on four felony counts of lying about his dealings with convicted Republican lobbyist and influence peddler Jack Abramoff, including obstructing the work of, and making false statements to, the GSA’s Office of Inspector General.

On Saturday, The Washington Post reported President Bush’s hand-picked GSA administrator now is trying to cut the budget for the Office of Inspector General, limit its ability to audit contracts for waste and fraud and farm out some of its duties to private firms. The GSA manages some $56 billion worth of contracts each year for the U.S. Defense and Homeland Security departments.

The Post reports that Lurita Alexis Doan, a former government contractor who took over the GSA in May, compared Inspector General (IG) Brian D. Miller and his staff to terrorists during an August staff meeting, claiming Miller and his staff had “gone too far” in efforts audit contracts.

There are two kinds of terrorism in the U.S: the external kind and, internally, the IGs have terrorized Regional Administrators.

Doan denies making the statement. Ironically, Miller is a former federal prosecutor who has worked on terrorism cases.

In an Oct. 20 letter to Doan, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, reminds the GSA administrator:

The IGs were established by Congress to ensure that the money taken out of the pockets of taxpayers’ pockets is spent wisely and according to law. If the money is being wasted by the government, then Congress wants to know about it….The primary mission of the IG in your agency and every other government agency is to be a sentry standing guard against waste, fraud and abuse wherever it occurs regardless of circumstance. This cannot be accomplished if the IG’s independence is impaired or hindered by the agency in any way, shape or form.

A GSA spokesman says Doan is simply “trying to reduce wasteful spending.” In her annual report, Doan claims that the Office of Inspector General and its staff “has grown annually and substantially” during the past five years. But since 2000, the number of employees in the office has increased by just 12 workers, from 297 to 309.

Miller tells the Post:

Let’s keep our eyes on the larger picture, which is that GSA’s $60 billion operations need to have objective and independent scrutiny. My office provides that public scrutiny. Not everyone is happy with this level of scrutiny. Nevertheless, my task is to keep our office focused on fulfilling our mission of working with GSA to enhance the quality and effectiveness of the services it provides, protect the integrity of GSA operations, and to keep fraud, waste and abuse away from its doorstep.