Report blasts agency over Martí no-bid deals (Congressional investigation)

[Judi Lynn]

Report blasts agency over Martí no-bid deals
Government investigators said the agency in charge of broadcasts into Cuba violated federal rules by authorizing no-bid deals for WAQI Radio Mambí 710 AM and TV Azteca.
Posted on Wed, Jul. 16, 2008

By ALFONSO CHARDY
[e-mail]

The investigating branch of the U.S. Congress has accused the federal agency that oversees radio and television broadcasts to Cuba of awarding more than $1 million in contracts to two Miami news outlets without following regular contract-bid procedures.

In a report issued Tuesday, the Government Accountability Office said the International Broadcasting Bureau failed to follow federal contract-awarding regulations when it authorized no-bid deals totaling about $1.1 million for WAQI Radio Mambí 710 AM and TV Azteca.

The 30-page report is the first of a series of GAO reports on the operations of Radio and TV Martí, which beam commentary, entertainment and news to Cuba under the Miami-based Office of Cuba Broadcasting.

The GAO released the report as part of an ongoing broader probe into the management and broadcasting practices of the controversial Radio and TV Martí services. The GAO opened the probe in response to a request from Rep. William D. Delahunt, D-Mass., chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights and Oversight.

More:
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/story/605937.html

[Judi Lynn]

1. It's a financial black hole: over $30,000,000 per year to fund both Radio & TV Marti.

It's programmed, directed by Cuban Americans, staffed by Cuban Americans, and paid by helpless ordinary U.S. taxpayers who have no say in it whatsoever.

Consider this example of what happened to a Democratic Congressman from Colorado, David Skaggs, who attempted to alter financing of Radio/TV Marti:
Dealing from principle --- ex-Representative Skaggs

However, in 1993, former Representative David Skaggs (D-CO), in an attempt to trim unnecessary budgetary spending targeted for the Martis, was able to convince his House brethren to block funding for the two operations --- a measure which did not meet the same success in the Senate, where it was inevitably defeated. Skaggs paid a high price for his bold move, and came under withering fire from anti-Havana hardliners. Marti’s congressional supporters, led by none other than treasury plunderer Representative Lincoln Diaz-Balart responded with a stark warning that revenge would be exacted on those who might threaten the continuation of the Marti operation, making an example of Skaggs by attempting to slash federal funding for projects in his home district. However, Skaggs refused to give up the fight, and he continued his campaign against the project, in particular its television component, until he retired in 1998. Skaggs admitted, "You know that if you kick the Cuba issue, you're going to have a bad day.” As a result of his personal experience, the Miami New Times reported in a November 12, 1998 article that Skaggs bitterly expressed outrage at the “corruption of United States policy that is inherent in our Cuba policy,” explaining, “by corruption I mean the untoward influence of a relatively small segment of the population in Florida and the money that small segment of the population brings to bear, and how it distorts the policy choices this government makes.”
(snip/)Approximately 1/2 way down the page at
http://cubajournal.blogspot.com/2006_04_01_archive.html



Diaz-Balart, back row, with his younger, "more" "handsome" brother Mario Diaz-Balart
who was in the Florida House of Representatives and was active in deciding to create
a whole new slate of electors in the event Al Gore won the election through the recount.
Diaz-Balart made good his threats: he got the Cuban American National Foundation to sponsor a series of advertisements in Colorado newspapers trumpeting the fact that the projects David Skaggs was trying to get for Colorado had been blown out of the water. Really screwed him over.

[Judi Lynn]

2. Report: problems with Radio/TV Marti contracts

The Associated Press July 15, 2008, 1:19PM ET
Report: problems with Radio/TV Marti contracts
By LAURA WIDES-MUNOZ


MIAMI -- Congress' investigative arm says the contracting practices of the U.S. government's Cuba broadcasts do not reflect sound business practices and is raising concerns about contracts awarded to local TV and radio stations, according to a report released Tuesday.

The Office of Cuba Broadcasting beams its Radio and TV Marti broadcasts to Cuba to provide an alternative to the communist island's government-run media. It awarded the noncompetitive contracts to the local Miami stations in 2006, following a push from the Bush administration to step up broadcasts to Cuba, as well as the announcement by former Cuban President Fidel Castro that he was stepping down due to health problems.

The contracts marked a major change in government practice, since the U.S. International Broadcasting Bureau, which oversees the broadcasts, is generally not allowed to air its programs within the United States to avoid the appearance of domestic propaganda.

~snip~
In responding to a draft of the report, IBB officials said they decided against publicly seeking competitive offers because they did not believe they would get satisfactory responses from other potential providers. They also said they feared the move would alert the Cuban government, which would be better able to jam the broadcasts.

Regarding Radio Mambi, known for its virulent anti-Castro rhetoric, IBB officials said they sought the station with the strongest AM signal to reach as much of Cuba as possible. The report notes, however, that Radio Mambi is one of the most commonly jammed stations since it airs on the same frequency as a Cuban government-run news station in Havana.

More:
http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D91UDPTO8.htm

[Judi Lynn]

3. Pretty good Pork

April 2008
Pretty good Pork
While Republican leaders promise to put an end to pork barrel spending, election rhetoric in South Florida tells another story.
Kirk Nielsen

Here comes Granma,” U.S. Rep. Mario Díaz-Balart (RMiami) says mockingly, referring to Cuba’s Communist Party newspaper and me. He is standing amid a swarm of reporters, TV cameras, and John McCain supporters in the ballroom of the Hilton Miami Airport, the night of the Mac’s January 29 Republican primary win. The Mac had just left the stage after a rousing victory speech, as had Diaz-Balart and his brother Lincoln, also a U.S. representative. The Granma crack related to something I had asked McCain about at the Versailles Restaurant in Little Havana about a week earlier. Something the Diaz-Balarts care deeply about: Radio and TV Martí.

The Miami-based stations, which beam programming at Cuba, have brought about a half-billion American taxpayer dollars to Miami over the past decade. The money continues to flow, despite consistently bad reviews, not from Granma or me, but from U.S. government inspectors. It was the fault of Sen. Joe Lieberman (R-CT) that I even raised the question. On the morning of January 17, while campaigning for McCain across the street from Versailles at La Carreta, Lieberman told a group of mostly Cuban-American political activists that the Mac wanted to increase spending on Radio and TV Martí. The U.S. needs to use them more aggressively, he asserted.

Four days later, McCain was holding forth from a podium in a side dining room at Versailles, and suddenly the irony seemed thicker than the scent of bacon and eggs wafting in from the main dining area. The Diaz-Balart brothers stood proudly behind him. “We’ve got stop the pork barrel spending,” McCain said emphatically. I glanced at the press corps seated around me and thought: A radio and TV operation that costs about $40 million in taxpayer money per year and that hardly anybody in Cuba tunes into—how is that not a huge pork barrel? And so, during the news conference after his speech, I asked the Mac how he could justify increasing spending on Radio and TV Martí, given that investigations had repeatedly found evidence of fiscal misfeasance, malfeasance, and possibly fraud.

“That’s not true!” Mario Diaz-Balart shouted from behind McCain, before I had finished my sentence. The Mac waved him off, without turning around, then replied. “I can justify it that I’ll spend anything that’s necessary in the cause of freedom,” Sen. McCain said sternly. “We know what won the Cold War. Radio Free Europe, Radio Liberty. And there were certain skeptics, such as yourself, about Radio Free Europe and those other means of communication that inspired hope in the people who were living under communist oppression, the same way that Radio Martí inspires hope in people that are living in one of the most brutal oppressive governments in history.”

More:
http://www.poder360.com/article_detail.php?id_article=200



Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain holds up a pair of
guayaberas that were presented to him during a town hall style rally
at the Sheraton Mart Convention Center in Miami, Florida.
Lincoln Diaz-Balart stands to the right. (Nuri Vallbona, MCT / May 20, 2008)

http://graphics8.nytimes.com.nyud.net:8090/images/2008/01/21/us/21mccain-533.jpg

January 21, 2008
John McCain got a squeeze from a supporter Monday after drinking
a coffee at Versailles in Miami. (Stephen Crowley/The New York Times)