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POGO Updates its Contractor Misconduct Database
2007 Volume 11-3
In This Issue
POGO Updates its Contractor Misconduct Database
Director's Letter
Senator Grassley Awarded Lifetime Achievement Award
POGO Welcomes Media Veterans to Staff
In Memoriam: Ronald E. Timm
POGO Testifies about the Government’s Failing Whistleblower Agencies
Strengthening the Unique Role of the Nation’s Inspectors General
Invest in POGO!
POGO Updates its Contractor Misconduct Database
POGO believes that the government is shirking its responsibility to protect taxpayers by not determining whether its contractors are truly responsible. Federal agencies seem more concerned with awarding contracts quickly to a few favorite companies rather than getting the best goods or services at the best practical price from responsible contractors.
Although the government sometimes recovers federal funds from prosecutions and enforcement actions, more can be done before the contract is awarded to ensure that dollars do not get awarded to risky contractors. The problem is that agencies do not have comprehensive contractor responsibility data readily available when making award determinations.
To that end, POGO recently released an updated and more user-friendly Federal Contractor Misconduct Database (FCMD). For years, POGO has scoured public sources to compile instances of misconduct by the top 100 federal contractors to highlight how contractors with long records continue to receive taxpayer funds. The new FCMD currently covers 386 instances of misconduct by the top 50 federal contractors from 1995 to the present, totaling more than $12.5 billion in fines, penalties, and settlements paid by those contractors. The database includes uploaded copies of the source documents for each instance, drawing primarily from government documents. We will expand the FCMD to cover the rest of the top 100 federal contractors later this year.
POGO's FCMD includes criminal, civil, and administrative cases, as well as investigative findings. Misconduct cases fall into fifteen misconduct types, including cost/labor mischarging, defective pricing, environmental violations, contract fraud, and labor misconduct. The FCMD is a living database that will be maintained, updated, and improved with new sort features. While it is not exhaustive, POGO hopes that contracting officials will use it as a resource to ensure that taxpayer dollars are only being directed to responsible contractors. You can access it at www.contractormisconduct.org.
POGO's general counsel, Scott Amey, testified about the FCMD and POGO's findings at a hearing held by the House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on Government Management, Organization, and Procurement. The hearing, titled "Federal Contracting: Do Poor Performers Keep Winning?" also examined the Contractors and Federal Spending Accountability Act of 2007 (H.R. 3033), proposed by Representative Carolyn Maloney (D-NY). If passed, the bill mandates that the government create a contractor performance and responsibility database; that contractors improve their reporting of criminal, civil, and administrative proceedings; and that the government debar contractors with multiple infractions of the same, or similar, offenses within any three-year period.
Director's Letter
Dear Friends,
For over 25 years, POGO has pursued effective oversight by investigating, exposing, and working to remedy misconduct and wasteful spending in the federal government. More recently, we have also helped to shore up the government's own capacity for oversight through our Congressional Oversight Training Seminars, and through a new investigation into the strengths and weaknesses of the Inspectors General (IG) system (see our page 5 article). POGO is launching this investigation in order to identify the best balance between independence and accountability in the IG system.
However, as the articles in this issue of POGO's newsletter describe, independent oversight by itself is not enough. For a democracy to be healthy, there must also be accountability: making sure that those who work for or do business with the government play by the rules. Uncovering corruption and other forms of misconduct after it occurs does not alone ensure good government. We need a preventive system of checks and balances that deters the wrongdoing in the first place. Transparency of the government's operations would be a great place to start.
For example, as you will learn from the front page article, the government regularly rewards contractors that have a history of misconduct and poor performance. In fact, misconduct is rarely even considered by the government when it is deciding which company will receive a new contract. POGO's Federal Contractor Misconduct Database (www.contractormisconduct.org) is one of our efforts to help hold contractors accountable for their conduct. This fully-searchable database creates transparency, enabling the public to see the conduct of the companies that receive our tax dollars. Perhaps more importantly, it allows government contracting officers to be better informed before they award contracts to scofflaws. And accountability is not all about punishment. Several of the top 50 government contractors have zero instances of misconduct in our database. It's only those who have something to hide who should fear being held accountable.
As 2007 has been the year of oversight, can we hope that 2008 is the year of accountability?
Senator Grassley Awarded Lifetime Achievement Award
In May 2007, POGO, the National Whistleblower Center, and more than 20 other public interest organizations presented the "Lifetime Achievement Award" to Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA), honoring his twenty-five years of championing whistleblowers and whistleblower protection issues. Senator Grassley's accomplishments include strengthening whistleblower protections for corporate and federal whistleblowers, as well as reviving the False Claims Act, which allows individuals to sue entities that have defrauded the federal government, and which has resulted in the government recovering over $20 billion. Beyond the reforms he has championed, Senator Grassley has also been the source of moral and strategic support for dozens of whistleblowers exposing corruption, waste, fraud, and abuse in the federal government.
The award was the highlight of the first-ever Washington Whistleblower Week, which brought dozens of whistleblowers to the nation's capital to demand that Congress reform the failed whistleblower protection system. Bunnatine Greenhouse, who blew the whistle on Halliburton's no-bid contracts, presented the award, noting: "By enabling whistleblowers to save taxpayers billions of dollars, by championing whistleblowers who raised concerns regarding public safety, corporate greed, government integrity, and national security, Senator Grassley has done more than any individual in this nation to change the public's perception of whistleblowers from the 'skunk in the picnic' to TIME Magazine's [2002] 'Persons of the Year'."
POGO Welcomes Media Veterans to Staff
POGO has recently added two media veterans to its staff. "We are thrilled to announce the addition of two seasoned professionals who will expand our ability to shake things up," said POGO Executive Director Danielle Brian
Marthena S. Cowart joins POGO as the Director of Communications. She brings 30 years of Washington, D.C., experience in federal and public relations for both the governmental and nonprofit sectors.
Most recently, she served as Senior Advisor and Assistant Inspector General for Congressional Affairs for Iraq Reconstruction. She has served as the Director of Communications for the Consumer Product Safety Commission; as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs; as the Director of Public Liaison for the United States Information Agency; as the Special Assistant to the Administrator of the Veterans Administration (now the Department of Veterans Affairs); as the Director of Media Logistics for the 1992 Commission on Presidential Debates; and Director of Public Outreach for the Common Good Institute. While at the State Department, Ms. Cowart established its successful global satellite network, the American Embassy Television Network (AETN).
Beverley Lumpkin joins POGO as an Investigator. She is a veteran journalist who has covered the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security for more than 20 years for the Associated Press, CBS News, and ABC News. At ABC, Ms. Lumpkin was the chief reporter at the Justice Department, while also covering the federal courts, high-profile trials, major Supreme Court cases, espionage and other national security stories, and the new Homeland Security Department. She also reported on breaking developments for "World News Tonight" and other ABC News broadcasts, filed on-air reports for ABC Radio, NewsOne, World News This Morning, online, and for the weekly syndicated column, "Halls of Justice."
In 2002, Ms. Lumpkin was selected to be a New York Times Fellow and was recognized by the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (the Emmys) for part of a team contribution to ABC's "reporting of the momentous events beginning on September 11, 2001." She also shared in the Joan Shorenstein Barone Award for exemplary Washington-based reporting, and the Edward R. Murrow Award for coverage of a continuing story as a member of the ABC News team in 1998-1999.
In Memoriam: Ronald E. Timm
This summer, the POGO family lost a dear friend and colleague, Ronald E. Timm. As a nuclear security engineer and former Department of Energy (DOE) contractor, Ron's insights were invaluable to POGO's work improving nuclear security.
While a DOE contractor, Ron discovered a number of security vulnerabilities in our nation's nuclear weapons complex. (For instance, on one visit to Pantex, Ron discovered that all the vehicle barriers had been installed backwards!) Throughout his time with DOE, he butted up against complacent bureaucrats who didn't want to acknowledge his findings. He eventually suffered one of the typical plights of whistleblowers, losing all of his government contracts. Rather than letting that get the best of him, Ron quickly transformed his business to advise public school systems on security measures.
Ron didn't give up on improving nuclear security, however. He worked with anyone he thought was serious about security. POGO was lucky enough to be one of those groups.
On a trip to Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Ron and POGO Senior Investigator Peter Stockton discovered that the building housing bomb-grade uranium was extremely vulnerable. In what became an infamous visit, Ron and Peter toured the facility on their own and wondered where the security was. The visit was memorialized by POGO's blogs, "Grumpy Old Men at Oak Ridge" and "Grumpy Old Men Part Deux." That visit resulted in DOE Headquarters sending three teams to evaluate how to handle the ORNL security problem, as well as a congressional mandate to expedite the disposal of the bomb-grade material at that site.
Ron always balanced his outrage with a keen sense of humor that made him a delight to work with. His contributions to the country's security are significant, and will continue to bear fruit. Our heartfelt condolences go to his wife Karen and to his children and grandchildren, of whom he was so proud. We will all miss him terribly.
POGO Testifies about the Government's Failing Whistleblower Agencies
In July 2007, POGO's Director of Investigations Beth Daley testified before the House Subcommittee on Federal Workforce about the failure of the government's whistleblower protection agencies to actually protect whistleblowers from retaliation. Primary among those agencies are the Office of Special Counsel (OSC) and the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB).
Because of POGO's role as a watchdog, we frequently hear from whistleblowers who are seeking assistance and justice from the OSC and MSPB. Unfortunately, few of those whistleblowers receive the help they need from the two agencies. Instead, the OSC and MSPB show a marked unwillingness to act on whistleblowers' concerns, to provide a fair hearing of their evidence, or to rein in agency abuses. Simply stated, the OSC and MSPB are failing in their missions.
Although the House of Representatives recently passed the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act of 2007 (H.R. 985) in an effort to remedy the situation, it is likely that OSC and MSPB will continue to fail as they have for most of their history. Both OSC and MSPB are small, weak institutions located in the Executive Branch, which is persistently hostile to its whistleblowers. In fact, the total number of favorable actions obtained for whistleblowers declined from 120 in 1995 to just 40 in 2006. In 2005 and 2006, only about 2.5 percent of the cases coming before the OSC resulted in a favorable action for the employee who filed the complaint. Finally, the OSC only issues, on average, zero to five enforcement actions annually against managers who engage in retaliation. With odds like these, it is easy to see why whistleblower retaliation continues to be a deeply-entrenched practice throughout the federal government.
As we approach the thirtieth anniversary of the OSC and MSPB, it is time for Congress to finally provide a system that will give whistleblowers the protections they deserve.
Strengthening the Unique Role of the Nation's Inspectors General
The following are excerpts from the July 11, 2007, testimony of POGO Executive Director Danielle Brian before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
Inspector General (IG) offices play a tremendously important role in advancing good government practices, but only if they are led by independent and qualified IGs and those IGs are allowed to do their job.
The intent of Congress in creating these watchdogs was to have an office within agencies that would balance the natural inclinations of agency or department heads to minimize bad news, and instead give Congress a more complete picture of agency operations.
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Investigations of the current NASA and Commerce IGs, and the former Postal Service and HHS IGs, have substantiated allegations of improper conduct by those offices.
At the same time, several IGs have suffered retaliation for doing their jobs too well. The Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, the General Services Administration and Legal Services Corporation IGs, and the former Smithsonian and Homeland Security IGs have all suffered some form of retaliation.
* * *
The balance between independence and accountability is a difficult one to maintain. On the one hand, an IG must be afforded the opportunity to pursue audits and investigations without fear of reprisal. On the other hand, there needs to be enough accountability that an IG does not pursue a partisan agenda, or become otherwise ineffective. Every legislative change needs to be considered through both prisms to ensure it does not have unintended consequences.
POGO is in the beginning stages of a major investigation into the Inspector General system to determine best practices as well as weaknesses. There are, however, a few improvements to the system that we have already determined make sense.
The first is to better ensure that people chosen to be IGs are of high caliber. … The process of selecting IGs, unique people who can thrive in the unpopular job of being an Inspector General, needs to be improved. …
The second improvement is that Presidentially-appointed IGs should have their own General Counsel's office. … A General Counsel's role is to protect the agency, whereas an IG's role is to investigate it if need be. …
Another improvement, and a way to mitigate any possible bias caused by being appointed by the President or agency head, is to create a term of office longer than four years, and to stipulate that an IG can only be removed for specific cause. This would give IGs some protection if they are operating in an agency whose head is trying to undermine an IG's independence.
A further improvement is to allow IGs to submit their budgets directly to both the Office of Management and Budget and Congress. This would enable Congress to better ensure IGs have resources commensurate with the size of the agency they are overseeing, and that their budgets are protected from agency retaliation. …
Even with perfect legislation … the IGs will only thrive when the relevant Congressional committees are actively engaged with their offices, and regularly ask them to report on their findings.
Invest in POGO!
Federal Employees: It's CFC time again and YOU can make a difference! Support POGO through your workplace Combined Federal Campaign (CFC) program. Please designate your contribution using POGO's new CFC number, #10785. We appreciate your support!
Not a federal employee? Well, anyone can become a monthly donor to POGO. Please visit our website at www.pogo.org to set up your recurring gift.
Thank you!
