Senator questions Customs Service disciplinary procedures

A key lawmaker has rekindled concerns about employee wrongdoing and corruption at the Customs Service. In a letter sent to officials at the Treasury Department, Customs' parent department, late last month, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, asked for information about disciplinary procedures for Customs employees. In particular, Grassley expressed concern over the way Customs handled the investigation of an agency employee who, in 1998, crashed into a tractor-trailer in Arizona, killing a colleague who was with him in his car. "I'm looking into the Arizona incident and into the broader questions it raises," Grassley said. "These questions are whether the Customs Service adequately investigates its agents for allegations of wrongdoing in the course of duty and whether agents are adequately disciplined when wrongdoing is substantiated." In the Arizona incident, Customs Special Agent Allan Sperling crashed while on a non-emergency assignment, killing fellow Special Agent Gary Friedli. Customs' initial internal investigation concluded that Sperling was not at fault, but contained errors and left out important information, according to a subsequent report from the Treasury Department's inspector general. The IG's report disputed Customs' findings, concluding that Sperling was traveling 55 mph in a 35 mph zone as he tried to pass the trailer on a dirt road. Sperling received a letter of reprimand following release of the IG's report. According to Jim Michie, a spokesman for Customs, Sperling still works for the agency. In a May 16 letter, Charles W. Winwood, acting director of the Customs Service, recounted the agency's actions following the accident and provided the specific information relating to the investigation and Customs' disciplinary procedures for employees that Grassley requested. Allegations of employee wrongdoing and criticism of the agency's disciplinary policy have plagued Customs for years. In 1999, investigations by both the Treasury Department inspector general and the department's Office of Professional Responsibility criticized the way Customs handled internal allegations, finding weak management of cases and low employee confidence in the fairness of management reviews. The Senate Finance Committee also held a series of hearings on Customs Service operations in May 1999, urging the agency to improve internal investigations of employee wrongdoing and corruption. During fiscal 1999, Customs put in place a series of reforms aimed at improving the agency's disciplinary process. The agency established a centralized system for reporting allegations of misconduct and created a disciplinary review board of senior managers to review the findings of investigations. In recent years, Customs has also focused on educating its workforce by publishing an employee handbook about the types of misconduct and the agency's penalties for violations. Customs' first report on conduct and discipline within the agency looked at 844 allegations of misconduct investigated during fiscal 1999. Of those, 456 resulted in disciplinary or other corrective action. Customs has more than 19,000 employees. According to the report, more than 64 percent of the conduct problems were minor, relating to poor attendance, failure to follow the instructions of supervisors and other administrative infractions.