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Return to Article: GSA watchdog finds himself on other side of misconduct investigation

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  These allegations of misfeasance and malfeasance by the GSA IG are a walk in the park compared to years of illegal activities and gross hiring fraud in the OPM IG that purposely excluded veterans from govt. employment. Perhaps under auspicies of the ethically bankrupt President's Commission on Integrity and Efficiency, OMB's Clay Johnson should appoint the thoroughly corrupt and clueless OPM IG to investigate the alledgedly corrupt GSA IG. This could be done in tandom with the OPM IG's ongoing, and competency challenged, investigation (not one conclusion or recommendation in nearly three years) of the historically corrupt, highly politicized, and fully useless Office of Special Counsel.

  NOTE TO US SENATE THAT'S ALWAYS ON GAME: It's time to push for another pay raise and still more independence for these fourth string, no term limit, power addled, and simply foolish "paragons" of government accountability. And whatever you do US Senate, continue not looking closely at what IG's really do and don't do. Yeah! That's the ticket.

  Ken Huffman Posted January 18, 2008 1:25 PM
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  This should come as no surprise to anyone. Essentially, when presented with near-autonomous authority, individuals perceive themselves impregnable and laws, rules, policies, and procedures are intended for all but themselves. Their actions take on that of a modern-day Marquis de Sade and they are unaffected or disturbed by the penalizations imposed upon others. Their makeup which they hide well is for the sole purpose of establishing dominance, demeaning others and disciplining those under their control harshly. Unfortunately, time and again we've witnessed this type of behavior in lawmakers, managers and leaders who are double-faced and present a false front to those whom the individual attempts to impress while displaying their narcissistic and maladaptive side to subordinates. This anti-social behavior goes on for an interminable period of time until management finally construe the individual for what he is....a pompous, obstinate, perverse individual. Having worked for individuals like this, the unfortunate part is moral has been deleteriously affected; conscientious, businesslike, technically proficient, ethical employees leave organizations without intent to return creating a dysfunctional organization empowered by an autocrat and attempts by management to return organizations to their former performance level is beyond reconciliation (even after his/her removal). The Government requires managers (leaders) possessing prescient abilities, sensitive to employees behavior and unsusceptible to ingratiating, deceptive, malfeasant individuals. All too often management's course of action is too little too late.

  CAE Posted January 18, 2008 10:35 AM
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  I don't think the GSA OIG has a corner on illegal activity--take a look at Treasury OIG's office's longstanding efforts to make KPMG the auditor for ALL of Treasury bureaus, whether a fair competition or not, incredible. Worse, alot of these OIG folks used to work for KPMG, makes one wonder if they are feather-bedding their positions jobs after retirement. They even worked succesfully to remove a complaining CFO from the audit contract recompete to protect these efforts. OIG's offices used to be respectable... then they got enough power to be abusive... the old adage, "power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely..." pretty well defines Treasury's OIG office, sadly.

  DSW Posted January 18, 2008 10:17 AM
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  Makes sense. I followed the Doan case closely as the time, effort, and attention seemed extremely overdone considering the magnitude of what was even considered as 'wrong' doing. This explains it and the case's sudden 'disappearance' from Govt news.

  Art Posted January 18, 2008 8:31 AM
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  Well, no good deed goes unpunished. The only question anyone should be asking is: "are the IG allegations against Doan credible and substantial or not?". I'd be surprised if any federal office (IG or not) is not "beset with infighting and power struggles". IG work is neither a picnic, nor a walk in the park. Take away their independence, and America has lost a champin of accountibility. Oh well, we've lost just about everything else.

  Don Posted January 18, 2008 7:15 AM
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  The whistleblowers charge that the GSA IG has misused investigatory and audit resources in an illegal way should come as no big surprise. These were the same tactics used against Sun, EMC and Canon, all of whom dropped their GSA schedules to escape the punitive treatment from a corrupt IG. GSA Contracting officers have long been operating in a culture of fear and intimidation that Buford now exposes. Now we have a series of charges of misconduct , misappropriation of funds and the creation of secret files on employees against the IG along with retaliatory attacks by the IG, all from within the Office of the IG. A better example of mismanagement within a single office cannot be found. In hindsight, Administrator Doan's early attempts last year to bring more oversight and accountability to the OIG were exactly what was needed, but her warnings were ignored and these same sort of tactics were used against her. What a sight.

  DChavez Posted January 17, 2008 8:23 PM