Read the full story here. Breitbart
“On November 9, 2011, Cause of Action asked DOJ Inspector General Cynthia Schnedar to investigate the status of the DOJ’s response to the letter Rep. Jason Chaffetz had sent to Eric Holder in March of 2011. On December 28, 2011, the DOJ OIG declined our request, refusing to look into the request from Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) to Attorney General Eric Holder to clear threats to the safety of Americans presented months earlier…”
Federal News Radio “In Depth” host Francis Rose talks with Dan Epstein about how the federal government is failing to protect whistleblowers.
Listen to the interview here.
“Cause of Action, a nonpartisan group that seeks more transparency in government, recently discovered e-mails through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) that show linkages between top National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) executives and ACORN, the liberal community organizing group Andrew Breitbart helped expose and eventually put out of business.
As the NLRB was attempting to block Boeing from relocating to the right-to-work state of South Carolina in the spring of 2011, Acting NLRB Counsel Late Solomon forwarded an e-mail to NLRB Director of Public Affairs Nancy Cleeland in which ACORN founder Wade Rathke expressed support for the NLRB’s attempts to block Boeing from relocating to the right-to-work state of South Carolina in the spring of 2011, according to information brought to light by the transparency group, Cause of Action.”
See the full post here.
Read the full story here. Washington Post
“The nonpartisan government accountability group Cause of Action has asked the acting director of the Office of Management and Budget to perform a government-wide audit to determine whether agencies are abiding by whistleblower protection laws.
The request comes after revelations that employees of the General Services Administration’s Pacific Rim region felt threatened by an acting regional administrator for voicing concerns over excessive spending. The region organized a 2010 Las Vegas training conference that cost more than $800,000 and has since come under investigation… “IG Miller claimed GSA employees were afraid of retaliation, and according to Miller, Jeff Neely, the [Pacific Rim region] administrator ‘squashed’ agency whistleblowers ‘like a bug,’” Cause of Action’s executive director Daniel Epstein wrote in a letter to Jeffrey Zients, acting director of the Office of Management and Budget and executive chairman of the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency.
In two other letters, sent April 19, Epstein asked the Office of Government Ethics to disclose information on GSA’s compliance with the Standards of Ethical Conduct for Employees of the Executive Branch, a single government-wide standard established in 1989.”
Dan Epstein joins Harris Faulkner on Fox News Live to discuss the GSA spending scandal and the steps Cause of Action is taking to hold the administration accountable for wasteful spending.
By Dan Epstein
This week’s hearings on the General Services Administration (GSA) spending scandal may be ruffling some feathers, but regardless of how the event is painted by either side, the truth is that we have yet another case of severe tax-dollar waste within an administration, who, time after time, has lauded transparency and accountability. This particular GSA atrocity was concealed for over a year. Can we help but wonder about similar instances of excess that fly under the OIG radar at other agencies?
This is why Cause of Action wrote letters to 32 federal agency offices demanding information on their spending on nonessential items that offer no value to taxpayers. Among last week’s disclosures, it was revealed that GSA spent $6,325 on commemorative coins in velvet boxes for employees at the controversial Las Vegas conference. Excessive spending on trinkets like these is not only frivolous but deceptive, prompting Cause of Action to send a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to each of 32 agencies and their Offices of Inspector General calling for documentation of all spending on commemorative awards such as coins and keychains.
Jeff Neely, the Regional Commissioner of Region 9 of the GSA, refused to testify before Monday’s House Oversight Committee hearing. In response to several questions from Chairman Darrell Issa, Neely claimed, “Mr. Chairman, on the advice of my counsel, I respectfully decline to answer based upon my 5th amendment constitutional privilege.” Inspector General Brian D. Miller claimed at the April 16, 2012 hearing that the excess spending at Region 9 was widespread. IG Miller claimed there are ongoing investigations “including all sorts of improprieties including bribes and possibly kickbacks.” IG Miller claimed GSA employees were afraid of retaliation; according to Miller, Jeff Neely “squashed” agency whistleblowers “like a bug” yet received a performance bonus for his work.
If our tax dollars are being used to purchase excessive rewards for gov
ernment employees while taxpayers themselves are struggling with mortgage payments, we want to uncover those facts.
As taxpayers, our rightful expectation is that the government is a responsible steward of our well-earned dollars and that our taxes are put toward projects that hold value for American citizens. If there are hidden line items within federal agency budgets that allocate dollars toward objects of no worth to taxpayers, Cause of Action intends to find out through FOIA, especially if this culture of noncompliance suppresses the rights of federal employees to expose fraud.
The Obama administration itself claims that FOIA is “an integral part of creating an open and transparent government,” and Cause of Action is no stranger to FOIA’s intricacies. Last fall, Cause of Action filed a FOIA request into the issue of administrative earmarks. When the Office of Management and Budget failed to present the requested information, Cause of Action took the White House to court.
The GSA case shows that tax-dollar waste comes with serious consequences. Thus far, eight GSA employees have faced serious discipline, been fired, or chosen to resign. Flippant spending is not to be taken lightly.
Acting GSA chief Dan Tangherlini has said that the GSA is now conducting an evaluation of its conferences, reviewing how dollars are used, and pinpointing methods for using resources more efficiently. But shouldn’t this be common practice for a federal agency? If GSA spent over $800,000 with practically no accountability, who’s to say that such extravagance isn’t pervasive below the surface of other federal entities?
This week, Cause of Action sent both a FOIA request for all records concerning the Office of Government Ethics’ (OGE) investigations into excessive spending on commemorative items by federal agencies as well as an investigation by the OGE into such excessive spending.
It should not take a scandal to motivate a department to streamline its spending practices, and it is disappointing that this administration needs constant reminding of its obligation to be transparent with taxpayers.
Our country is sitting under a government that can’t balance a budget and within an economy that’s facing a recession. If there was ever a time to reveal wasteful government spending and demand that this administration live up to its claims to transparency, it is now.
“Cause of Action, a nonpartisan government accountability group, has asked 28 federal agencies’ inspectors general offices for information on award coins issued to federal employees. The group has filed a Freedom of Information Act request in response to news that the Pacific Rim region of the General Services Administration spent $6,325 on award coins for employees, given out during a Las Vegas training conference in 2010. “We are sending these letters because if there are more instances of this type of wasteful spending, we intend to expose it,” said Dan Epstein, executive director of the organization.”
Read the full story here.
