THE DAILY FED
Treasury IG Contract Probed
A Senate oversight committee chairman yesterday requested a probe into allegations that Treasury Department Inspector General Valerie Lau put together a no-bid contract for a longtime acquaintance who a year before had recommended her for the IG position, The Washington Post reported today.
Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, referred the allegations to Robert Bryant, head of the FBI's Criminal Investigative Division and chairman of the Integrity Committee of the President's Council on Integrity and Efficiency, which investigates charges against inspector generals. Grassley said that in December 1994 Lau arranged a non-competitive contract of $113,000 for a management study of her office to be awarded to Frank Sato, a private auditor and former IG at the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Transportation Department. Sato was eventually paid $90,776.
A year before he was awarded the contract, Sato recommended Lau to the White House for an IG job at either Treasury, Transportation or the Office of Personnel Management.
Grassley questioned the no-bid contract. He said they are "usually reserved for matters of 'unusual and compelling urgency.' This contract clearly was neither unusual nor urgent."
Grassley asked Bryant to review the award to see if it violated any laws or ethics rules.
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