Former Voice of America overseer hired two law firms to $4 million no-bid contracts.
The former head of Voice of America’s parent agency hired two law firms to open-ended, no-bid contracts, including one specifying that top lawyers would earn $1,470 per hour, according to documents and people familiar with the matter. The two agreements have cost taxpayers close to $4 million over a five-month period, far more than was previously known, and possibly in violation of federal rules.
The first details of the arrangement were made public last week in a whistleblower complaint against Michael Pack, who was appointed chief executive of the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM) eight months ago, and whom President Biden forced to resign hours after he took office last week.
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He sidelined experienced managers, investigated a VOA reporter, and sought to steer the editorial direction of the news agencies — all in the name of rooting out what he called “bias” against Trump. Agency bureaucrats and journalists responded with a volley of lawsuits, whistleblower complaints and a petition demanding the removal of Pack’s appointees.
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The law firm hires appear to violate federal regulations, according to people familiar with the rules. The contracts were awarded on a no-bid basis, which is permissible only if a federal agency supplies written documentation to justify it. There is no record that Pack or USAGM provided this documentation.
“My assumption [is that] Pack was in a hurry,” said David Seide, senior counsel at the Government Accountability Project, which filed the whistleblower complaint about the McGuireWoods agreement last week. He reasoned that Pack hired McGuireWoods to investigate employees because “he couldn’t get, or didn’t want, anyone in the government” to do so.
Seide said McGuireWoods began its work on Aug. 12, the same day USAGM informed the managers they were suspended, suggesting that Pack hired the firm to compile evidence against people he had already decided to suspend.
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