Posted on 06/14/2013 11:24:42 AM PDT by Servant of the Cross
Probably in part because the Obama administration intimidates inspector generals.
Among all the unanswered questions about the IRS’s illegal targeting of conservative organizations, one is most crucial: Who ordered this extreme scrutiny?
Amazingly, IRS inspector general J. Russell George, responsible for the investigation asking those questions about the IRS, has testified that he did not obtain that information.
Details of that testimony are interesting. Representative Tom Graves (R., Ga.) asked, “Have you asked the individuals who ordered them to use this extra scrutiny to punish, or penalize, or postpone, or deny?” George turns around to confer with his assistant. Just the fact that the inspector general had to confer to know the answer to this crucial question is amazing. George’s assistant says something to him that is not recorded, but one can see the assistant shaking his head back and forth. Then George responds publicly to the question, saying, “During our audit, Congressman, we did pose that question and no one would acknowledge who, if anyone, provided that direction.”
Anyone who knows anything about the rights and responsibilities of an inspector general has to be shaking his head in disbelief at George’s explanation. First, every employee of the government has the responsibility to cooperate with and provide information to an IG concerning his work.
Second, George was particularly careful to limit his answer to the “audit phase.” Every IG has two procedures to obtain information. One is audit procedure, to which IG George referred. That’s generally limited to accounting analysis, to determine whether there may be reason to open an investigation. Once there is reason — and there clearly was reason here, given the obviously illegal conduct — the IG opens an investigation, in which investigators, not auditors, pose the questions, the department employees are placed under oath, and, as a federal court has approved, informed that “failure to answer completely and truthfully may result in disciplinary action, including dismissal.” The question is why George’s office didn’t do this immediately.
From my personal experience as an IG of another agency, I suspect the answer. I do not blame IG George personally, as he is a career civil servant who depends on a steady salary and, thereafter, a pension.
But I learned, through being fired by the Obama administration, that performing one’s responsibilities as one should, and potentially adversely affecting the administration’s image, is not the way to keep one’s job. (Fortunately, I was not dependent on my federal IG salary.)
That reality was made apparent to me — and, through what happened to me, to all IGs — when I supported my staff of longtime dedicated civil servants, who had recommended taking action against one Kevin Johnson, a former NBA player who had misused, for personal purposes, about $750,000 of an AmeriCorps grant intended for underprivileged young people. What I did not then know was that he was a friend and supporter of President Obama — a fact that caused the proverbial you-know-what to hit the fan.
Without detailing all that happened, the bottom line was that I started to receive pressure to drop the case against Mr. Johnson. When I declined to repudiate my staff’s work, the guillotine fell: I was summarily telephoned that if I did not resign in one hour, I would be fired. And I was, along with my special assistant, John Park. The Wall Street Journal editorial board wrote of my firing: “The evidence suggests that [President Obama’s] White House fired a public official who refused to roll over to protect a Presidential crony.”
Similar questions have been raised about other IGs who somehow have been discarded. Amtrak IG Fred Weiderhold, Treasury special IG Neil Barofsky, and International Trade Commission IG Judith Gwynn all left their positions after disputes that weren’t appreciated by the administration, giving more reason for others to go easy with the administration. Further, the president has significantly failed to fill IG vacancies in important agencies (State, Interior, Labor, Homeland Security, and USAID) – well-documented by former IG Joseph Schmitz — demeaning the importance of the IG position.
This administration’s treatment of IGs is not conducive to active, independent, and objective inspectors general, and explains at least in part why key questions about the IRS still have not been asked or investigated.
Servant of the Cross ~:” George was particularly careful to limit his answer to the “audit phase.”
It is apparent that George ,himself , CHOSE not to pursue the audit and go into an investigative phase of inquiry.
He valued salary and pension over doing his job !
THey stopped when they realize that no one will do anything about the use of FED to stop voter participation.
They know that we are sheep and the weakest generation the nation has yet seen.
I feel we should write a strongly worded email!
Or maybe a call to Rush is in order!
That will teach em!
Are there no options available? Seems BO has absolute immunity for everything. The entire extent of oversight is having a congressional hearing and then nothing.
Thanks for posting this, I thought about this guy’s story and wanted to post about him as a reminder of what this admin does to people that speak out but I couldn’t remember his name. Isn’t he the one that they claimed was senile or something like that?
The Federal Government is not capable of investigating itself. We need an Amendment that somehow turns this responsibility over to the States.
Seems like a thousand years ago but I remember this. .very clear thinking guy as I recall.
The most transparently evil administration in the history of Republic.
The "news" media are only interested when a Repub administration fires someone, like when W fired 7 (?) attorneys. Then they go nuts.
State Dept IG vacancy
Feb 14, 2013
Tired of waiting for the Obama administration to act, Republican and Democratic lawmakers recently wrote to the White House and the State Department about the latter’s lack of an inspector general (IG).
It has been five years since the State Department had a permanent IG, leaving the office in the hands of deputy inspector general Harold W. Geisel.
That’s far too long, as far as House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce (R-California) and ranking Democrat Eliot Engel (D-New York) are concerned. They wrote to Secretary of State John Kerry urging him to find someone for President Barack Obama to appoint.
Another group of lawmakers wrote to Obama expressing their own concerns about installing a permanent IG, who is needed to assure that the State Department is working to prevent waste, fraud and abuse, they said.
No other agency in the federal government has had an inspector general vacancy as long as the State Department has.
The last State Department IG, Howard Krongard, resigned effective January 15, 2008, after allegations that he had blocked investigations into Iraq-related contract fraud and alleged arms smuggling by Blackwater Worldwide (now Academi).
The vacancy was the subject of a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report (pdf) two years ago. The GAO pointed out that relying on U.S. ambassadors to lead inspector general inspections “resulted in, at a minimum, the appearance of independence impairment.”
Six, IIRC. And they were fired for not doing their jobs -- failing to take action on vote fraud cases for political, not legal, reasons.
I guess protecting Bambi, the uncoordinated and white but wannabe black basketballer, was one of his jobs? Pity he didn’t realize it.
Inspector general wants hearing with fair judge (Good piece on entire Walpin illegal firing)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2584060/posts
The Purpose Of a System Is What It Does — POSIWID. The purpose of an Inspector General is not to make sure that everything is on the up-and-up. The purpose of an Inspector General is to protect the interests of the higher-ups.
Don’t forget that Walpin was fired illegally. Obama was required to give 30-days’ notice to Congress of his intention to fire an IG.
Had Obama been held accountable for illegally firing Walpin, we might have prevented his continued, flagrant abuse of power and the law.
so the democratic hypocrites howl when AG gonzales fires a few US attorneys (who serve at his pleasure), yet they have nothing to say when the WH obstructs investigations by inspectors general, who are independent of their agencies?
and the nation thought nixon was corrupt...
Walpin was one of the FIRST OF MANY scandals by THE FOREIGNER.
At that time THE FOREIGNER, being black, couldn’t possibly do anything wrong.
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