Free Republic

GAO opens ACORN investigation By: Jake Sherman December 17, 2009 01:52 PM EST A top House Republican says the Government Accountability Office has opened an investigation into ACORN’s use of taxpayer dollars. Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) made the announcement Thursday in the course of demanding a separate FBI investigation into the group. “Only an independent criminal investigation conducted by the FBI can get to the bottom of the nationwide allegations against ACORN,” Smith said in a news release. The GAO investigation will be completed jointly with the executive branch’s inspector general. More than 20 senators and several House members asked...

Christian human rights attorney Gao Zhisheng was seized by a dozen police officers and last seen in public on February 4, 2009. Gao Zhisheng has been repeatedly kidnapped, arrested, imprisoned and tortured by Chinese authorities for defending the persecuted. He has been an unyielding voice for justice in the Chinese courts and was even nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2008.

I missed this story: Since 2007, the U.S. State Department has been issuing high-tech "e-passports," which contain computer chips carrying biometric data to prevent forgery. Unfortunately, according to a March report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO), getting one of these supersecure passports under false pretenses isn't particularly difficult for anyone with even basic forgery skills. A GAO investigator managed to obtain four genuine U.S. passports using fake names and fraudulent documents. In one case, he used the Social Security number of a man who had died in 1965. In another, he used the Social Security number of a fictitious...

The United Nations, which has been telling the world that it must cut back dramatically on its greenhouse gas emissions, has finally decided to practice what it preaches. But the world body isn't coming clean on the full costs of its self-greening effort with the member states who foot the bill. After Fox News began asking questions about a pilot project that aims to start that process, the documentation concerning the greening effort abruptly disappeared from the U.N. Web site where it had been stored. [...] The U.N. pilot project has another purpose: it involves a low-profile, grass-roots campaign to...

Note: The following text is a quote: YOU ARE HERE: Home > Reports > Consular Affairs Bulletins > Report Travel Warning: Mali CONSULAR AFFAIRS BULLETINS Sub-Saharan Africa - Mali 31 Aug 2009 The U.S. Department of State issued the following Travel Warning on August 31: The U.S. Department of State warns U.S. citizens of the risk of travel to Mali and that Al-Qaeda in the Land of the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) may use the Islamic month of Ramadan as an opportunity to conduct further attacks against Americans and other foreign nationals. Faith-based organizations, regardless of location, may be particularly targeted....

When President Barack Obama entered office in January, the greatest problem America faced was neither the war in Afghanistan nor the recession. It was the imminent crisis of the welfare state. Not only has Obama failed to deal with this crisis, he is pursuing policies that will bankrupt America. In March, the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, led by former U.S. Comptroller General David Walker, calculated the total value of the federal government's "unfunded liabilities" as they stood at the end of fiscal 2008. These liabilities include the publicly held portion of the national debt plus the amount the government must...

"White House Defends Stimulus Act Despite Government Audit Questioning the Job Numbers" SNIPPET: "(CNSNews.com) - The White House defended the effectiveness of the economic stimulus act on Monday after a government audit last week called many of the reported job numbers into question. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) reported that $173 billion of the $787 billion stimulus package had been paid out by the federal government as of Sept. 30. That’s about 22 percent of the total, and it indicates that 78 percent of the stimulus funds have not been paid out – at a time when unemployment was rising."

WASHINGTON -- The government agency charged with overseeing the economic-stimulus program says it doesn't plan to change its position that the package directly created or saved 640,329.17 jobs through September, despite its own admission and statements from the White House that the number is not accurate. Ed Pound, spokesman for the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board, said that the number would not be changed. The Government Accountability Office, which is the investigative arm of Congress, issued a report last week saying that there were "significant issues to be addressed" in the accuracy of reports. The report said that "many entries...

Here’s another case of you can trust us but you can’t trust them. I’m talking about how big government thinks there is something fishy about the workplace becoming a safer place. It comes as no surprise that liberals think big business (the enemy) has something to hide. If we can only investigate the hypocrites that want the investigation. Here’s a thought: with 10.2% unemployment and a serious decline in manufacturing jobs over the past 20 years does it really come as a big surprise that work place incidents are on the decline? Let’s see… less people are working, less places...

Flu-wary telecommuters may clog Web networks, GAO says By Cecilia Kang Wednesday, October 28, 2009 As the spread of the H1N1 flu keeps more Americans away from work and school, a federal report warns that all those people logging on to the Web from home could overwhelm Internet networks. The Government Accountability Office reported earlier this week that if the flu reaches a pandemic, a surge in telecommuting and children accessing video files and games at home could bog down local networks. And if that were to happen, it is not clear whether the federal government is prepared to deal...

America's economy faces a miserable future, according to an important government report. The media collectively have yawned, and official Washington has barely blinked. The Government Accountability Office recently issued its report to the Congress on the long-term fiscal outlook for the United States. It is a bleak picture. The report opens: "Weakness in the economy and financial markets -- and the government's response to them -- have contributed to near-term increases in federal deficits, which reached record level in fiscal year 2009. While a lot of attention has been given to the recent fiscal deterioration, the federal government faces even...

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has released updated information on the nation’s fiscal outlook, based on the projections from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO). On October 7, CBO announced that the nation's budget deficit for 2009 was $1.4 trillion, triple 2008's, which was the worst in history at the time.

GAO report: Saudis are top fianciers of Taliban WASHINGTON — The United States has determined that Saudi Arabia continues to be the leading source of funding to Al Qaida and is also the top financial backer of Taliban. ShareThis A report the Government Accountability Office said the Saudi government did not appear to be involved in the funding, but that Saudi funds to both Al Qaida and Taliban has helped finance the war against NATO in Afghanistan. GAO said Saudis were the chief source of funding to Taliban. The report said couriers were transporting cash from Saudi Arabia and other...

Some members of Congress are so disturbed by failures and malfeasance described in a recent government report that they are considering removing the agency that audits hundreds of billions of dollars in Defense Department contracts from Pentagon supervision. One legislator said he felt physically sickened by the report. The lawmakers were reacting to findings by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the investigative arm of Congress, about the Defense Contract Auditing Agency (DCAA). The agency, which last year was responsible for ensuring that taxpayers got good value for more than a half-trillion dollars in defense contracts, revised audits to curry favor...

David Walker sounds like a modern-day Paul Revere as he warns about the country's perilous future. "We suffer from a fiscal cancer," he tells a meeting of the National Taxpayers Union, the nation's oldest anti-tax lobby. "Our off balance sheet obligations associated with Social Security and Medicare put us in a $56 trillion financial hole—and that's before the recession was officially declared last year. America now owes more than Americans are worth—and the gap is growing!" His audience sits in rapt attention. A few years ago these antitax activists would have been polite but a tad restless listening to the...

Conservation: The Chevy Volt is said to be able to get 230 miles per gallon. That's if it's continually plugged into a fragile and overburdened power grid. Where will you be when the lights go out? Since most U.S. electricity generation is not carbon-free, the Congressional Research Service agrees. The "widespread adoption of plug-in hybrid vehicles through 2030 may have only a small effect on, and might actually increase, carbon emissions," it observes. "If you are using coal-fired power plants and half the country's electricity comes from coal powered plants, are you just trading one greenhouse gas emitter for another?"...

Tegucigalpa, Honduras The report on drug trafficking, issued by the office of investigations of the US Congress, made some of the Chavist officials in Caracas explode. The report revealed that the trafficking and distrubution of drugs is aided by corruption in the government of ...Hugo Chavez and by the lack of cooperation with the anti-drug policies of the US. According to the report, Caracas has created a "permissive atmosphere" for insurgent organizations like FARC, by whom the drugs produced in Colombia are brought to Venezuela and from there distributed to the world. “According to US officials, this permissive atmosphere is...

GAO lists Postal Service as a troubled agency in need of immediate action WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Government Accountability Office on Tuesday added the Postal Service to its list of high-risk federal agencies in need of change. The post office has been struggling with a sharp decline in mail volume as people and businesses switch to e-mail both for personal contact and bill paying. The agency is facing a nearly $7 billion potential loss this fiscal year despite a 2-cent increase in the price of stamps in May, and cuts in staff.

WASHINGTON – The Obama administration's effort to persuade mortgage companies to lower payments for up to 4 million homeowners could fall short of its goal, according to congressional investigators. The Government Accountability office said Thursday the administration's projections that its loan modification plan could help 3 million to 4 million borrowers "may be overstated" because it's based on uncertain assumptions about the mortgage market and overall economic conditions. In March, the Obama administration launched a plan to give the lending industry up to $50 billion in financial incentives to modify mortgages for struggling borrowers. As of this week, 31 mortgage...

The Food and Drug Administration—which has struggled to fulfill its mission of regulating food, drugs and other consumer goods that make up nearly a quarter of the U.S. economy—does not have the expertise to forecast its own budget needs, according to congressional investigators. While many lawmakers and consumer advocates have long complained that the agency lacks the staff and equipment to accomplish its mission, the Government Accountability Office says the agency doesn't even have "the data to develop a complete and reliable estimate of the resources it needs." FDA officials acknowledged the problems uncovered by the GAO, saying they are...

The push for conversion to plug-in electric cars will do nothing to stop carbon emissions, a report by the GAO warns, throwing cold water on a push by Democrats to get more plug-ins on the road. In fact, the problem could be made worse as demand goes up at coal-fired electrical plants. Plus, the need for batteries may just have the US changing the dictators to which we’re chained, as IBD reports...

WASHINGTON – Federal Reserve deputy chairman Donald Kohn on Thursday defended the U.S. central bank's independence, saying congressional oversight could interfere with monetary policymaking. If the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the investigative arm of Congress, were authorized to audit the Fed, that "could cast a chill on monetary policy deliberations," Kohn told a House of Representatives committee. He acknowledged that the possibility of expanding the audit authority of the GAO over the Fed "has recently been discussed." "Although Federal Reserve officials regularly explain the rationale for their policy decisions in public venues, the process of vetting ideas and proposals, many...

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Plainclothes investigators sent to test security at federal buildings in four U.S. cities were successful in smuggling bomb components through guard posts at all 10 of the sites they visited, according to a government report. The investigators then assembled the bombs in restrooms and freely entered numerous government offices while carrying the devices in briefcases, the report said. The buildings contained offices of several federal lawmakers as well as agencies within the departments of State, Justice and Homeland Security, which is responsible for safeguarding federal office buildings.

Among the security breaches, investigators found one guard asleep after taking the painkiller Percocet and one who allowed a box of handguns to pass through an x-ray machine...

The U.S. Treasury has apparently found another way to lose more taxpayer money. Perhaps $9 billion down the drain, unless changes are made soon. Last year, when the Treasury doled out some $200 billion from the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), it also acquired warrants to purchase common stock in banks that received TARP assistance. However, as the law was written, the Treasury must sell those same warrants back to the banks once they have paid back their original TARP loan. What the law does not state is for how much. One of the first banks to pay...

Over 90 Percent of Mexican Crime Guns Originate in U.S., New GAO Report Finds That's the headline from the Violence Policy Center press release. It is a premeditated lie. True, the qualifier "traced by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) over the last three years" is admitted in the body of the release, but even that doesn't tell a reader the number of guns withheld by Mexican authorities--or whether the ones submitted have been randomly selected or cherry-picked. Headlines are important. Often times while scanning through news, that is all that will be noticed or retained....

After Losing $20 Million in Equipment, Federal Health-Care Agency Won $500 Million Earmark in Stimulus; Agency’s HQ Had 10 Pieces of IT Equipment Per Worker Friday, June 19, 2009 By Monica Gabriel (CNSNews.com) - The $787 billion stimulus bill that President Obama signed in February awarded the Indian Health Service with an earmark for $500 million in new funding, including $85 million specifically set aside for “health information technology activities,” even though a Government Accountability Office audit released the previous June concluded that mismanagement of the IHS had allowed $15.8 million worth of equipment to be lost or stolen between...

A congressional investigation has exposed gaping holes in security eight years after the September 11 terrorist attacks, a government report says. An investigator used a false identification to obtain a U.S. passport and then used the passport to get an airline boarding pass and go through an airport security checkpoint, according to the Government Accountability Office. The GAO, the investigative arm of Congress, said its undercover investigator conducted four tests of the passport issuance system and "easily" obtained passports every time. Individuals with "even minimal counterfeiting capabilities" can obtain genuine U.S. passports, which can be used to travel overseas, open...

WASHINGTON, March 11, 2009 – An effective, honest police force is vital to security progress in Afghanistan, but a shortage of instructors hampers the training process, according to a Government Accountability Office report. The report, released March 9, said Afghan police are making significant progress, but more could be done, and faster, with additional personnel. The report looked at police retraining efforts, the restructuring process, the screening process for Afghan personnel and the Afghan pay system. The United States has spent more than $6.2 billion on the training and organization of the Afghan Interior Ministry and Afghan National Police....

(CNSNews.com) – Between 2004 and 2008, the U.S. gave an estimated 242,000 “small” and “light” weapons to the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF). But now 87,000, or 36 percent, of those weapons are missing and unaccounted for, largely because of a lack of accountability guidelines and weak safe-keeping practices, taccording to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report. The GAO said the U.S. Army Security Assistance Command and the U.S. Navy have spent about $120 million to buy 242,203 weapons, including rifles (117,163), pistols (62,055), machine guns (35,778), grenade launchers (18,656), shotguns (6,704), rocket-propelled grenade launchers (1,620), mortars, and other weapons...

Re: Many environmental groups are using their tax-exempt IRS registered 501(c)(3) charitable organizations as fraudulent front operations for the Democrats-Soros Shadow Party~FlA. Environmental groups are simply Democrat political machines with millions of dollars in contributions and expenditures each year for the purpose of raising more money to pursue their agenda. ~ Sen. James Inhofe Mr./Madam President, I rise today to shed some light on a subject that is very important to me in my oversight duties as Chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee. Earlier this year, the Environment and Public Works Committee held an oversight hearing where the...

A recent ABC report should be of concern to all Americans and to our elected leaders. It regards Shirwa Ahmed, a naturalized U.S. citizen who is believed to have committed a suicide bombing in Somalia and – even more disturbing – may have been involved in the recruitment of young men of Somali descent here in the United States. The news report further states that more than a dozen such men, perhaps as many as 40 and mostly in their 20s, have "disappeared." Here are the most important questions: How did Shirwa Ahmed acquire citizenship through the naturalization process? Did...

Word that Boeing is strongly considering a “no bid” position for the next round of the U.S. Air Force refueling tanker competition is spreading only two days after the Pentagon released the revised KC-X draft request for proposals (RFP). Multiple sources familiar with Boeing’s internal discussions say company officials are strongly considering the option of not submitting a proposal as the company’s Integrated Defense Systems sector tries to respond to the draft RFP within the government’s speedy timeline. Comments are due this week. The move would leave the Defense Dept. without a competition for the KC-135 tanker replacement. A demand...

Deadline to submit bid is just two months away WASHINGTON – The Pentagon on Wednesday requested new bids on a $35 billion contract for aerial refueling tankers, but Boeing supporters on Capitol Hill complained that the revised criteria seem to favor the rival European airplane. [...] “It’s obviously stacked against Boeing,” said Loren Thompson, an analyst with the Lexington Institute, a Virginia-based think tank that focuses on national security and defense issues. “It appears to favor a larger aircraft in a way the original did not. But the timeline doesn’t give Boeing an opportunity to prepare a bid for a...

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates announced Wednesday that Northrop Grumman and Boeing will have to submit revised proposals for the Air Force’s highly contested aerial refueling tanker program. The Pentagon chief's decision comes after the Government Accountability Office (GAO) upheld Boeing's protest of the Air Force's decision to award the contract to Northrop Grumman and EADS North America, the parent company of Boeing rival Airbus. “I have concluded that the contract cannot be awarded,” Gates said at a Pentagon news conference. Northrop Grumman won the heated competition on Feb. 29, but is currently under a stop-work order. The decision means...

ONE of "the most contaminated places on Earth" will only get dirtier if the US government doesn't get its act together - clean-up plans are already 19 years behind schedule and not due for completion until 2050. More than 210 million litres of radioactive and chemical waste are stored in 177 underground tanks at Hanford in Washington State. Most are over 50 years old. Already 67 of the tanks have failed, leaking almost 4 million litres of waste into the ground. There are now "serious questions about the tanks' long-term viability," says a Government Accountability Office report, which strongly criticises...

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said yesterday that the Pentagon will hold a new, fast-tracked competition to replace the Air Force's aging fleet of aerial refueling tankers, a move that overturns the previous award of the contract to Northrop Grumman. The decision follows criticism of the selection process by the Government Accountability Office and underscores the sharp divisions over the contract. The deal to replace the Air Force's entire fleet could be worth up to $100 billion over the next two decades. Gates said he expects the Pentagon to choose a new winner by the end of the year. On...

We haven’t read it, but here is it, all 67 pages in PDF form. b-311344__boeing__redacted_decision. Update, 1215 PM PDT: We’ve completed a quick read of the GAO decision. In it, the GAO found–as previously reported–for Boeing on a number of key elements. The GAO also rejected Boeing’s protests on far more complaints than were sustained, but only a small number of these are discussed in the report. Some of these were key elements in Boeing’s public relations campaign. But that’s neither here nor there–the elements detailed by the GAO in sustaining the protest are enough. The GAO report also makes...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. Air Force told Boeing Co (NYSE:BA - News) it had fully met a key requirement in competing for a $35 billion aerial refueling program but then changed its evaluation without telling the company, government auditors said on Wednesday. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) released an extended explanation of its decision last week to uphold Boeing's protest against the contract award to Northrop Grumman

The GAO and Pentagon cited less violence but also Iraqi forces unprepared to go it alone. WASHINGTON - Two new government reports, one by the Pentagon, pointed Monday to encouraging security improvements in Iraq but were pessimistic about prospects for political and economic progress and warned that costly military gains remain fragile.One report, by the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, concluded that many political reconciliation efforts have stalled, that Iraq's security forces remain largely unable to operate without U.S. assistance and that its central government has not fulfilled commitments to spend its own money on reconstruction efforts....

The month of June has been one that EADS will be hoping ends quickly. Starting with the arrest of Noel Forgeard, former co-CEO, the stock being branded a liability; by Joe Campbell and then just this week the arrest of another executive, the news that the US GAO had sided with Boeing in its protest of the KC-X tanker award will have left the European aerospace company reeling. You can read the GAO press release by clicking right here. From the very outset of the annoucement back in February 2008, Boeing’s view and position surrounding the protest had such conviction...

The GAO has issued a report with the not so catchy title, "BORDER SECURITY:Summary of Covert Tests and Security Assessments for the Senate Committee on Finance, 2003–2007." Highlights as noted by Michael Cutler. Why GAO Did This Study From January 2003 to September 2007, GAO testified before the Committee on three occasions to describe security vulnerabilities that terrorists could exploit to enter the country. GAO’s first two testimonies focused on covert testing at ports of entry—the air, sea, and land locations where international travelers can legally enter the United States. In its third testimony, GAO focused on limited security assessments...

Mobile’s hopes for an aircraft assembly plant just took a serious hit. As shown in the latest edition of Lagniappe, Boeing claimed the Air Force made math errors in their CNBC is reporting the U.S. General Accounting Office has also found that to be the case and called them “significant errors.” Boeing (NYSE:BA) is trading sharply higher on the news, while Northrop Grumman (NYSE:NOC) has taken a slight hit. Although the Air Force doesn’t have to abide by the GAO’s ruling, the likely outcome is for another round of bidding for the tanker contract experts say.

The U.S. Air Force has conceded that Boeing (nyse: BA - news - people ) Co's proposed KC-767 aerial refueling tanker would cost less over time than the winning plane offered by Northrop Grumman Corp (nyse: NOC - news - people ) and its European subcontractor EADS, Boeing told auditors reviewing its protest against the Air Force decision. News of Air Force errors in calculating the life cycle costs of the competing bids, which were also confirmed by Northrop, comes as the Government Accountability Office (GAO) prepares to rule by June 19 on the Boeing protest.

Boeing protested. The GAO has until June 19 to review the contract selection. They'll most likely approve USAF's selection, What happens after that is anybody's guess. Howls from the Washington and Kansas congressional delegations, certainly. Political accusations between Obama and McCain, probably. when do we find out if the USAF are able to stick with the original decision to buy the European designed tanker ? Will true democracy and freedom of choice prevail or will we see a U turn of all that is supposed to be good in the USA.

A labor union of technical engineers issued an 11-page “white paper” today ripping the USAF tanker contract award to Northrop Grumman and the KC-30 over the Boeing KC-767. The two page press release summarizes the white paper findings. The press release focuses entirely on EADS, parent of Airbus and maker of the A330-200 on which Northrop’s offering of the KC-30 is based. Northrop’s identified as a “minority” partner. (During a conference several months ago, Northrop acknowledged that about 50% of the contract revenues flow to EADs/Airbus. Engines, in this case provided by GE (an American company), typically represent about 20%...

Not all quite on the tankern front. “US GAO begins hearing on Northrop/EADS tanker deal�http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSN0539240420080505 “A GAO spokesman confirmed the start of the hearing, but gave no details. The congressional agency, which reviews contract disputes, is due to rule on the case by June 19. The hearing includes lawyers from Boeing, Northrop, and the Air Force, with three GAO officials hearing the various arguments, according to three sources familiar with the case, who said it could last all week. “This hearing will go on for days and days,� said one of the sources, who asked not to be named. “Each...

WASHINGTON -- The head of the union that represents 6,000 federal food inspectors told a congressional committee Thursday that the Agriculture Department tried to intimidate him and other employees who reported violations of regulations, an allegation denied by the agency. Union chief Stan Painter said that following a mad cow disease scare in 2003, he told superiors that new food safety regulations for slaughtered cattle were not being uniformly enforced. Painter said he was told to drop the matter, and when he didn't, was grilled by department officials and then placed on disciplinary investigative status. Painter said he was eventually...

WASHINGTON - Federal employees charged millions of dollars for Internet dating, tailor-made suits, lingerie, lavish dinners and other questionable expenses to their government credit cards over a 15-month period, congressional auditors say. A report by the Government Accountability Office, obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press, examined spending controls across the federal government following reports of credit-card abuse at departments including Defense, Homeland Security and Veterans Affairs. The review of card spending at more than a dozen departments from 2005 to 2006 found that nearly 41 percent of roughly $14 billion in credit-card purchases, whether legitimate or questionable, did not follow...

WASHINGTON - The Pentagon hasn't made the case for exemptions from three environmental laws or provided examples of how military operations have been impeded by them, a congressional report said Friday. The Government Accountability Office report came after the Navy lost in court over training exercises it was conducting under an exemption to the Marine Mammal Protection Act. Environmentalists contended that the Navy's use of sonar could harm whales off the Southern California coast, and the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled March 2 that the Navy had to limit the sonar use. In a written response included in...