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The Postal Service Board of Governors appointed a new inspector general Tuesday to replace Karla Corcoran, who announced her immediate retirement the same day.

David Williams, who will take over the job immediately, has served at different times as IG for the Internal Revenue Service, Social Security Administration, Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Treasury Department.

During the past few months Corcoran, who was appointed in 1997, had faced accusations of mismanagement of resources and misuse of funds. Some of the accusations were grounded in whistleblower reports about IG employees building gingerbread houses, dressing up like the 1970s-era disco group The Village People and performing stripteases during work hours, with requirements from Corcoran that they deliver videotapes chronicling these events to the IG. These allegations led to calls for her ouster, and a request for an investigation by the President's Council on Integrity and Efficiency by Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee.

According to Grassley, the PCIE report confirmed the accusations against Corcoran.

"The PCIE findings are stunning," Grassley said in a statement released after the retirement announcement. "The PCIE found that the IG followed a pattern and practice of unprofessional conduct in her management; the IG used questionable judgment in areas within her discretion; the IG expended taxpayer money extravagantly; and, the IG engaged in personnel practices that were either questionable or not in accord with USPS policy."

For Gene DelPolito, president of the Association for Postal Commerce, Corcoran's retirement was long overdue.

"People were just waiting for some shoe to drop and obviously it did," DelPolito said. "Here is the person who is supposed to be in charge of abuse, fraud and waste, and what she does is she abuses her privilege as the IG. A great deal of activity was spent pursuing trivial pursuits, chasing activities that were of no real significant consequence in terms of how well the Postal Service is run or how efficient it's run."

But DelPolito did have some kind parting words about Corcoran.

"She was a good organizer. She got something up from the ground when there was nothing, and she did put together a good staff," he said. "But she is a classic example of someone who stayed too long in their position."

COMMENTS

• Just one more example of a high level government manager who is abusing their position and they are allowed to retire without any ramifications. When are we going to start holding managers accountable for their actions?? And where was Ms. Corcoran's boss? She reported to someone who should have been able to attest to the duties she performed and how she performed them? Was that person not doing their job also? Abusers succeed at abusing the system because someone in their management chain allows it to happen either through consent or negligence. Is this not just one more form of waste, fraud and abuse that should be investigated and corrected? The federal government will always have "bad employees" as long as this is the example and leadership their managers are providing. If this type of activity continues to go on at such high levels and no one is held accountable, how can lower level employees be corrected and held accountable? GovExec.com reader Posted August 21, 2003 10:04 AM
• Sound familar? Another appointee. More unethical conduct and misuse of funds. Just allowed to retire gracefully with no loss of benefits or no requirement to pay back those funds. Chances are Ms. Corcoran has already been forgiven and has been offered another political piece of cake. Repeats of this type just keep sending the same message, "if you're up the ladder far enough, you can get away with anything". If our leaders weren't afraid of throwing rocks at themselves they would make the penalities for this type of action severe enough to prevent the constant reoccurance. Since the lawmakers do nothing to prevent it we the taxpayers keep paying the tab. Political appointees and other government employees (no matter how high up the ladder) need to know they will have to pay all monies back, may be required to serve time in hard-time prison and their benefits e.g. retirement will be reduced. The question is how do we get the lawmakers off their cans to keep this from reoccuring time and again? GovExec.com reader Posted August 21, 2003 7:27 AM
• “Here is the person who is supposed to be in charge of abuse, fraud and waste, and what she does is she abuses her privilege as the IG." Brilliant! This is not the first case of an IG problem. The DoDIG office was accused of writing reports and then doing the work papers to support the report. The inside answer was that the GAO required everything in a set format so they had to write the report first and then develop the work papers to support the report - otherwise the GAO would make then redo the reports. This really is stupid but GAO is in part responsible for the problems. GAO should investigate every IG operation and make sure it is doing what is correct - however, GAO is not correct itself. Therefore, who is going to investigate the GAO? Maybe GAO should go back to accounting and forget the auditing because from what I have seen they do not even know what they are looking at and make recommendations based on totally erroneous information. GovExec.com reader Posted August 21, 2003 6:38 AM