Top civilian in Army Corps of Engineers may lose her job

[Judi Lynn]

Top civilian in Army Corps of Engineers may lose her job

08/06/2005

By DEBORAH HASTINGS / Associated Press


In the world as Bunnatine Greenhouse sees it, people do the right thing. They stand up for the greater good and they speak up when things go wrong. She believes God has a purpose for each life and she prays every day for that purpose to be made evident.
(snip)

She has asked many questions: Why is Halliburton — a giant Texas firm that holds more than 50 percent of all rebuilding efforts in Iraq — getting billions in contracts without competitive bidding? Do the durations of those contracts make sense? Have there been violations of federal laws regulating how the government can spend its money?
(snip)

Last October 6, she was summoned to the office of her boss. Major Gen. Robert Griffin, the Corps' deputy commander, was demoting her, he told her, taking away her Senior Executive Service status and sending her to midlevel management. Not unlike being cast out of the office of bank president into the cubicle of branch manager. Griffin declined to be interviewed by the AP.

Her performance was poor, said a letter he presented. This was a surprise. Her previous job evaluations had been exemplary, she said. The basic theme was that she was "difficult," and "nobody likes you," she said.
If she didn't want the new position, she could always retire with full benefits, the letter noted.
(snip/...)

http://www.dentonrc.com/sharedcontent/APStories/stories/D8BQF5B80.html
(Free registration required)

[roguevalley]

1. I hope she grieves and then sues. The bastards.

[AndyTiedye]

2. Go to Court, Go to Congress, Go to the Press

[mom cat]

3. Hope she writes a book and stays off of small planes!

[evermind]

4. (AP) Army whistleblower draws fire (over Halliburton questions)

Posted on Sun, Aug. 07, 2005

Army whistleblower draws fire

DEBORAH HASTINGS

Associated Press

WASHINGTON - In the world as Bunnatine Greenhouse sees it, people do the right thing. They stand up for the greater good and they speak up when things go wrong. She believes God has a purpose for each life and she prays every day for that purpose to be made evident. These days she is praying her heart out, because she is in a great deal of trouble.

Bunnatine "Bunny" Greenhouse is the Principal Assistant Responsible for Contracting ("PARC" in the alphabet soup of military acronyms) in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Lest the title fool, she is responsible for awarding billions upon billions in taxpayers' money to private companies hired to resurrect war-torn Iraq and to feed, clothe, shelter and do the laundry of American troops stationed there.

She has rained a mighty storm upon herself for standing up, before members of Congress and live on C-SPAN to proclaim things are just not right in this staggeringly profitable business.

She has asked many questions: Why is Halliburton - a giant Texas firm that holds more than 50 percent of all rebuilding efforts in Iraq - getting billions in contracts without competitive bidding? Do the durations of those contracts make sense? Have there been violations of federal laws regulating how the government can spend its money?

(... continues ...)

www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/politics/wire/sns-ap-being-bunny-greenhouse,1,7274797,full.story?ctrack=1&cset=true

The article goes on to say she was questionably demoted after raising issues about Halliburton, invited to retire, and now placed under a three-month performance review.

The general who hired her in 1997, and remains sympathetic, describing her as "probably the most professional person I've ever met", is quoted as saying ""I think you can put a fork in it. Her career is done."

It's quite a long article, with more details both of the difficulties she's getting into at work and the issues she's raised about Halliburton, particularly their subsidiary KBR.

[tsuki]

5. A fine example of Conservative Morals. Reward the traitor who

blows a CIA operation twenty years in the making, and punish a whistleblower who tries to keep the public purse strings out of corporate hands.

[catzies]

7. Yup. SOP for the GOP. I've been following these whistleblower stories

for a few years now, and Bunny Greenhouse was mentioned in the Vanity Fair article about Halliburton earlier this year.

[niallmac]

6. GO GIRL! GO BUNNY!

This is the kind of story that makes my sunday! What a hero and a role model for all of us.
This kind of moxie is what the repugs do not even recognize as a human trait. She has an independent mind. I would like to send her an encouraging email at the very least. :bounce:

[donco6]

8. Halliburton denies any wrongdoing - surprise!

Snip:

Her contracting staff was sharply reduced, she said, and her superiors have gone behind her back, most notably in issuing an emergency waiver -- on a day she was out of the office -- that allowed KBR to ignore requests from Department of Defense auditors who issued a draft report in 2003 concluding KBR overcharged the government $61 million for fuel in Iraq.

"They knew I would never have signed it," she said.

The Army Corps of Engineers declined to comment on Greenhouse's complaints. "It's a personnel matter," said Corps spokeswoman Carol Sanders. "We're not going to go point-by-point with Ms. Greenhouse's accusations.

"They want me out," Greenhouse said.

Endsnip

So when superiors are threatened, it's a "personnel matter." How do they sleep at night? What Greenhouse has pointed out are egregious violations of BASIC fundamental purchasing procedures. What I don't understand is why the companies who have been shut out by Halliburton aren't speaking up on her behalf. They're the ones who have been hurt by the DoDs blockade of bidding.

[sattahipdeep]

9. She demanded Kellogg, Brown & Root officials be ejected....

A month before Kellogg, Brown & Root got the contract -- and three
weeks before the U.S. invaded Iraq -- she had demanded Kellogg, Brown & Root
officials be ejected from a Pentagon meeting attended by high-ranking officials
from the Corps and the Defense Department.

"They should not have been there," she said. "We were discussing the terms of the contract."

....
$61 million for fuel in Iraq.
....
"They knew I would never have signed it," she said.

Who Done It?

[fortyfeetunder]

10. Whistleblowing realities

The reality is with whistleblowing, it's best not to go it alone, try to have buy-in with a bunch of other people who feel the same way, and want to take action. The folks in power can easily squash one but don't have the ammunition to squash many as effectively.

It's easy to be the lone voice of conscience, but without an active support base to blow the whistle, it's a risky deal on one's career.

Remember the three women profiled as Women of the Year in Time Magazine for their whistleblowing for Enron, Worldcom, and the FBI...Remember their names? Know where they are now?

[fortyfeetunder]

11. A non-subscription site

http://www.vanityfair.com/commentary/content/articles/050307roco02

[mcscajun]

12. She's an American Patriot. She is therefore....doomed.

It's Tragic. And Obscene.

She's got more spine than the whole crew in the White House put together.