New GSA chief wants to cut audit funds, reduce oversight; calls Inspector General, staff terrorists

[DeepModem Mom]

WP,pg1: GSA Chief Seeks to Cut Budget For Audits
Contract Oversight Would Be Reduced
By Scott Higham and Robert O'Harrow Jr.
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, December 2, 2006; Page A01


Administrator Lurita Alexis Doan is trying to cut wasteful spending at the General Services Administration, according to a spokesman. (By Sarah L. Voisin -- The Washington Post)

The new chief of the U.S. General Services Administration is trying to limit the ability of the agency's inspector general to audit contracts for fraud or waste and has said oversight efforts are intimidating the workforce, according to government documents and interviews.

GSA Administrator Lurita Alexis Doan, a Bush political appointee and former government contractor, has proposed cutting $5 million in spending on audits and shifting some responsibility for contract reviews to small, private audit contractors.

Doan also has chided Inspector General Brian D. Miller for not going along with her attempts to streamline the agency's contracting efforts. In a private staff meeting Aug. 18, Doan said Miller's effort to examine contracts had "gone too far and is eroding the health of the organization," according to notes of the meeting written by an unidentified participant from the Office of Inspector General (OIG).

The GSA is responsible for managing about $56 billion worth of contracts each year for the departments of Defense and Homeland Security and other agencies.

Doan compared Miller and his staff to terrorists, according to a copy of the notes obtained by The Washington Post....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/01/AR2006120101645.html

[davidinalameda]

1. another first class Bush appointee

:sarcasm:

[FreeStateDemocrat]

2. Another "evil-doer" out to hide the corruption.

[Toots]

3. So the Inspector General is a Terrorist because he wants oversight of her Dept..

They bandy about the term Terrorist so much it is beginning to lose its meaning. According to them more than two thirds of Americans are terrorists.

[NavyDavy]

4. if she did nothing wrong why is she scared?

[dubykc]

5. I'm thinking the emplyees NEED to be intimdated into...

awarding contracts legally by all current and future acquisition rules and regs.
Inspectors General are vital to ensure compliance with the law and ferret out fraud, waste and abuse.

This woman obviously knows more than the IG has uncovered yet.

[annabanana]

6. same ol' same ol'

Appoint ideologically opposed heads to oversight agencies to de-fund and dismantle them. It is standard operating procedure. It started under Reagan.

[mcg]

7. Letter from Sen. Grassley

http://media.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/documents/gsa.pdf