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POGO in Lively Debate at IG Conference
2008 Volume 12-2
In This Issue
POGO in Lively Debate at IG Conference
Letter from the Director
Good Government Hall of Fame: Stewart Mott (1937-2008)
Pentagon Office of Inspector General in Turmoil
Leaked Report: FAA Fails to Check Safety of Airplane Parts
OSC's Scott Bloch Is At It Again
Pressing DOE to Transfer Nuclear Materials from Livermore Lab
Report Update: NRC Finalizes New Nuclear Power Plant Work Rule
Beyond the Headlines
POGO in Lively Debate at IG Conference
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Earlier this year, POGO's Executive Director Danielle Brian and Investigator Beverley Lumpkin were invited to the annual conference of federal Inspectors General (IGs). They joined Deputy Director of the White House Office of Management and Budget and Chair of the IG Councils Clay Johnson III on a panel to discuss the role of Inspectors General, as well as POGO's findings from its review of the IG system.
In what was a lively discussion, some basic questions were raised, including to whom IGs report. This simple question sparked debate between POGO and Johnson, and even prompted the audience to join in. The Inspector General law makes clear that IGs fall only under the general supervision of their agency heads, and that they must report and respond to Congress as much as they do to their agency chiefs. The IG law also requires that IGs keep Congress "fully and currently informed" about significant issues affecting their agencies. It is this dual reporting function that makes Inspectors General unique in government.
However, that "dual-hattedness," as one IG called it, was rejected by Mr. Johnson. He maintained that IGs are hired and fired by the executive branch, and therefore report to that branch. In fact, Johnson said, it is "forbidden at all costs" for an IG to have an informal relationship with Congress. Johnson later wrote in a blog response to POGO, "an IG should not report to Congress anything he or she hasn't also briefed agency management on, or the details of ongoing investigations." Many IGs disagree, and continue to brief Congress regularly on their work (except for sensitive criminal investigations, of course). This difference of opinion about an IG's role highlights how difficult IGs are finding it to straddle the barbed wire fence between the two branches of government, as the law requires them to do.
Another central question explored by the panel was whether IGs have sufficient independence to accomplish their mission, the focus of POGO's first IG report, Inspectors General: Many Lack Essential Tools for Independence. While Mr. Johnson declared that there had "not been one instance of an IG not having the independence needed to do a good job," POGO has heard multiple tales of agency infringement of IGs' powers. Danielle and Beverley let the IGs know that POGO would continue its IG oversight project, with the second report covering accountability, performance, and effectiveness to be released later this year.
Letter from the Director
Dear Friends,
I've always been proud of POGO's ability to make a big impact while still being lean and mean. And over the last couple of years, little POGO's voice has grown even stronger. POGO staffers are being asked to speak at more and more venues, usually government or academic gatherings (although not too many contractor-sponsored events). Since the last newsletter alone, we've spoken to audiences ranging from Inspectors General to college students.
While at these speaking opportunities, we're noticing an increased thirst for POGO's work and non-partisan voice, which are utterly independent of any special interests. In fact, a growing wave of federal employees has been contacting us just to let us know they're glad POGO is here—a rock-solid advocate for good government. They recognize that our work exposing fraud and misconduct is in no way anti-government, but is rooted in a core belief that government should—and can—be effective, honest, and open.
As POGO conducts its investigations and works towards solutions to the problems we uncover, we are finding more and more allies along the way, both inside and outside the government. We have become a crossroads for citizen activists, journalists, government insiders, and contractors who are working to help fix broken systems.
We are also expanding our outreach to young people in Washington. Last year, POGO launched a Brown Bag Lecture series for interns from public policy groups in D.C. Our goal for the series is to educate the up-coming generations about the importance of government accountability, and to give them the tools necessary to convert that knowledge into action. At these lunches, interns get to learn from some of the great journalists, activists, academics, and Washington insiders with whom POGO is privileged to work.
We cannot do our work without our growing list of supporters. Thank you again for all your help joining POGO's battle for good government.
Warmly,
Danielle Brian, Executive Director
Good Government Hall of Fame
Stewart Mott
1937-2008
POGO is proud to induct Stewart R. Mott into our Good Government Hall of Fame for his lifetime of visionary and risk-taking philanthropy. Happily, Stewart knew before he passed away that he was being inducted.
As has been said many a time in an attempt to describe this ebullient soul, "In the grey-flannel world of philanthropy, Stewart Mott is a red sombrero." While he had a quick business mind that could catch even the smallest errors in a spreadsheet, he was also likely to giggle gleefully at a successful effort to expose government malfeasance. The fresh flower he regularly wore in his lapel and his love of VW bugs—despite being an heir to the General Motors fortune—were clues to the joy with which this true Renaissance man embraced life.
Stewart focused much of his life's work on fostering a civil society devoted to protecting constitutional democracy. The list of institutions that can trace their roots to him includes The Fund for Constitutional Government, The Almanac of American Politics, Center for Defense Information, Center for International Policy, Government Accountability Project, and of course POGO. He even bought a house in Washington, D.C., so that his projects could be near the Senate and Supreme Court. Over the years, the Mott House has become the meeting place for thousands of activists, journalists, and policymakers all working to strengthen constitutional checks and balances, and hold corrupt officials accountable. Stewart's effectiveness as a political philanthropist even earned him a spot on Richard Nixon's original "enemies list" in 1971.
Stewart's family's motto is Spectemur Agendo, "Let Us Be Known by Our Deeds," and without question he fulfilled that motto. But to define Stewart only through his deeds is inadequate. There was simply no-one else like him. POGO is honored to be a part of this extraordinary man's legacy.
Pentagon Office of Inspector General in Turmoil
Pentagon Inspector General Claude M. Kicklighter has just stepped down. His resignation may have come because the Office of Inspector General is so outgunned.
A March 2008 Department of Defense Office of Inspector General (DoD OIG) report to Congress, made public by POGO in May, found that while the defense budget has doubled from about $300 billion in 2001 to over $600 billion in 2008, the staffing at the OIG has stayed at about the same level. This has left auditors and criminal investigators overwhelmed and unable to provide adequate oversight of vast areas of the DoD, leaving the Department more vulnerable to significant financial loss, the report states. The stretched criminal investigators also don't have the resources to investigate possible acts of terrorism and other crimes.
Among the disturbing points made by the DoD OIG in its report are the following:
* In fiscal year 2007, nearly half of the taxpayer dollars spent on weapons acquisition—$152 billion—did not receive sufficient audit coverage.
* The contract dollar amounts overseen by each DoD OIG contract auditor have tripled. According to the report, "in FY 97, there was 1 DoD IG auditor for each $642 million in DoD contracts. By 2007, the ratio had declined to 1 DoD IG auditor for each $2.03 billion in DoD contracts."
* Despite a tremendous rise over the last ten years in the number of military whistleblower reprisal complaints (62%, from 315 to 528 a year), the number of DoD OIG investigators who look into those complaints has dropped (14%, from 22 to 19).
* DoD intelligence agencies, where most intelligence money across the federal government is spent, "are key areas where oversight has been reduced."
POGO is continuing to work to improve oversight in the Pentagon, and is urging Congress to provide funds for more staff at the DoD OIG.
Leaked Report: FAA Fails to Check Safety of Airplane Parts
In a report first released in February by POGO, the Department of Transportation Inspector General (IG) found that passengers were being flown on airplanes with substandard parts because the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) lacks an adequate system for checking the parts. According to the report, increased outsourcing of airplane parts production to other countries is a creating a significant safety concern, compounded by the FAA's regulatory failures. In fact, the situation is similar to that created by the outsourcing of drug and toy production to other countries. However, even domestically, the FAA and aircraft companies were failing. Following POGO's release of the audit, further revelations from agency whistleblowers indicated that the FAA also fails to ensure that airlines conduct adequate safety checks.
The audit examined oversight at various aircraft manufacturers, as well as at the FAA. It found that there were "widespread deficiencies" at 20 out of 21 supplier facilities used by major aviation manufacturers. The IG added, "Manufacturers are the first line of defense in ensuring the products used on their aircraft meet FAA and manufacturers' standards. Yet, during the 24 months preceding our review, manufacturers had not audited 6 of the 21 critical part suppliers we visited."
In May, POGO further uncovered rampant fraud on the part of Airtech International, a supplier of aircraft composite materials, and poor oversight on the part of major aerospace manufacturers.
This is further proof that the FAA continues to be a captured agency, providing ineffective regulation at the public's peril. And manufacturers continue to put short-term profit ahead of proven and prudent safety and quality. A massive effort must be made to beef up the entire aviation safety oversight apparatus—lives and billions of dollars are at stake. POGO has supported efforts on Capitol Hill to close the revolving door between the FAA and the airlines, which has contributed to the lax safety oversight.
OSC’s Scott Bloch Is At It Again
In May, POGO obtained an extraordinary internal document written by career lawyers at the Office of Special Counsel (OSC) revealing how OSC head Scott Bloch's personal or political agenda was overriding OSC professional staff recommendations. The document is particularly egregious because the OSC is the office tasked with rooting out violations of the Hatch Act and prohibited personnel practices in federal agencies, including retaliation against whistleblowers.
As we have reported over the past three years, the OSC has become a mockery of a federal agency, an Alice in Wonderland venue where what's right is wrong and what's wrong is right. Under Special Counsel Bloch, the office has squelched investigations for political reasons and opened others despite a lack of jurisdiction.
The January 18, 2008, document was a 13-page lament for sanity by lawyers assigned by Bloch to a task force created to handle sensitive and high-profile matters. Unfortunately, Bloch ignored virtually every recommendation his team made: If the task force recommended going forward with an inquiry, Bloch ordered them to close it down; if the task force reported there was no jurisdiction for the OSC to probe a matter, Bloch demanded that they keep it going and that they send more requests for documents.
Bloch has been under fire almost since taking office, and deservedly so. As POGO Director of Investigations Beth Daley has said, Bloch was creating a "mutual investigation society," investigating issues in which he had no jurisdiction so he could cry retaliation if criticized. POGO joined with whistleblowers and other groups to file a complaint against him in March 2005. That complaint led to the current investigation, in which FBI agents raided both his home and office. They even searched his physical person, and reportedly seized two thumb drives containing files he had uploaded before having his computers "scrubbed."
POGO believes the President has more than ample cause to remove Bloch, and should do so immediately.
Pressing DOE to Transfer Nuclear Materials from Livermore Lab
In March, POGO released its newest nuclear security report, U.S. Nuclear Weapons Complex: Livermore Homes and Plutonium Make Bad Neighbors. Although most other nuclear weapons facilities are in relatively isolated locations, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is surrounded by the growing residential community of San Francisco: roughly seven million people live within a 50-mile radius. POGO concluded that the Department of Energy (DOE) could, and should, remove the approximately one ton of weapons-grade and weapons-quantity plutonium and highly enriched uranium (HEU) from the Lab by early 2009—four years earlier than DOE's end-of-2012 timeline.
POGO learned last year that NNSA waived Livermore Lab from meeting the current security requirements devised by the intelligence community. The Lab needed the waiver because the surrounding community's proximity has made it impossible to properly protect the Lab's plutonium and HEU.
The report further recommended that, until the Lab is de-inventoried of its weapons-grade plutonium and HEU, DOE federalize the Lab's protective force. Federalization would ameliorate problems stemming from the guard force's insufficient authority, equipment, personnel, and training as contract employees.
POGO's findings generated numerous national and local news stories. Perhaps in response to the attention, NNSA made a shipment of plutonium out of Livermore ten days after our report's release.
The biggest push toward implementing our recommendations may come as a result of actions by the Lab itself. Working closely with POGO, Time Magazine broke the story in May that Livermore Lab's protective force failed to fend off a mock terrorist attack a month earlier. The mock terrorists who tested the Lab's security succeeded in a scenario in which they stole simulated plutonium and HEU, and another scenario to detonate an improvised nuclear device on the spot.
Report Update: NRC Finalizes New Nuclear Power Plant Work Rule
In March, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) published a final rule limiting the number of hours nuclear power plant security personnel can work to 48 hours per person per week during normal operations, and an average of 60 hours per week for planned plant and security system outages. This change was long in coming and will help ensure that security personnel remain capable of safely and competently performing their duties.
In its decision to upgrade the work rules, the NRC cited POGO's 2002 investigative report Nuclear Power Plant Security: Voices from Inside the Fences. The report found that security officers were working 60 to 72 hours per week, or more! A number of the officers who worked in the 72-hour-a-week range admitted that they were in no shape to function in the face of an attack on their plant.
In 2003, POGO took NRC Commissioner Ed McGaffigan to meet with 45 guards at the Salem and Hope Creek Nuclear Power Plant in New Jersey. It was then that he heard for the first time about the overwork and fatigue—the complaints had been kept from making it up that far in the chain of command. In record-time, McGaffigan issued an order to reduce the hours, but the industry quickly learned to game the system by grouping security officers in with non-armed personnel to achieve an average of work hours instead of individual weekly-work records.
Commissioner McGaffigan then initiated the rulemaking process to resolve these problems. To support the rulemaking, POGO testified before Congress and attended numerous NRC meetings, bringing security officers to decipher plant schedules and the various techniques used by industry to torpedo the initial order. The bad news is the NRC isn't requiring power plant licensees to implement the rule until fall 2009. POGO thinks this is too long, and is recommending that the rule be implemented by the end of 2008.
Beyond the Headlines
It's time again to nominate your favorite do-gooder for POGO's Beyond the Headlines Award! Nominees should be whistleblowers, activists, journalists, or politicians who have worked beyond the Washington norm of grabbing for headlines, and have worked to protect the public interest.
Past award winners include former Pentagon Director of Operational Test and Evaluation Phil Coyle, open government advocate Russ Kick, and former federal Forest Service supervisor Gloria Flora.
Please submit your nominations no later than August 31, 2008, to pogo@pogo.org or by calling Danni Downing at (202) 347-1122.
