Report: Major federal lab misused contract funds

Associated Press ^ | Nov 12, 2014 5:50 PM EST | Susan Montoya Bryan

[Olog-hai]

Managers at one of the nation’s premier federal laboratories improperly used taxpayer funds to influence members of Congress and other officials as part of an effort to extend the lab’s $2.4 billion management contract, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Inspector General said in a report Wednesday.

A review of documents determined that Sandia National Laboratories formed a team and worked with consultants beginning in 2009 to develop a plan for securing a contract extension without having to go through a competitive process.

That plan called for lobbying Congress, trying to influence key advisers to then-Energy Secretary Steven Chu and reaching out to a former director of the National Nuclear Security Administration and former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, a Democrat who led the Energy Department under the Clinton administration.

One consultant suggested the lab’s message to decision-makers should be that competition was not in the best interest of the government. …

[leapfrog0202]

NM list PING!

I may not PING for all New Mexico articles. To see New Mexico articles by topic click here: New Mexico Topics

To see NM articles by keyword, click here: New Mexico Keywords

To see the NM Message Page, click here: New Mexico Messages

(The NM list is available on my FR homepage for anyone to use. Let me know if you wish to be added or removed from the list.)
(For ABQ Journal articles requiring a subscription, scroll down to the bottom of the page to view the article for free after answering a question or watching a short video commercial.)

[KoRn]

Unless they’re working on something like the Manhattan Project, why in GOD’S NAME does a .gov lab need 2 BILLION DOLLARS for anything?!?!

I’d just LOVE to see their itemized expense report/balance sheet.... (or I PROBABLY wouldn’t...)

We just need to ‘reset’ our government, and everything associated with it. Or at least have a ‘spring cleaning’ where ALL budgets are effectively ‘zeroed’, and every dollar of appropriations justified in starting over. It has gotten FAR beyond any measure of control, and the waste/corruption is entrenched through every agency and department. Coburn’s yearly “waste-book” probably just barely scratches the surface.

[blueunicorn6]

“Let’s use taxpayer money to beg for more taxpayer money!”

“Brilliant! You’re getting a bonus for that idea!”

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Gooberment bow wows used gooberment taxpayer monty to petition for more gooberment money ?
How often does this happen ?

[tet68]

why in GOD’S NAME does a .gov lab need 2 BILLION DOLLARS for anything?!?!

Afro-Lesbian Studies?
Gay Interior Decorator design sense?

[Calamari]

Warp drive?

[PGalt]

Prison for plunderers…

http://www.usdebtclock.org

A citizens Plunder Recovery Service (PRS) to seize the assets of these criminals looting the republic and relegated us to debt slaves.

[CedarDave]

“Let’s use taxpayer money to beg for more taxpayer money!”
“Brilliant! You’re getting a bonus for that idea!”

Actually, that is what the two NM Senators and the Democrats did this past election cycle. Their candidate for governor blamed Martinez for not creating jobs when in fact the declining Federal money available for funding the military and national labs in NM caused the decline. Susana believes that private sector jobs will help the economy while the Democrats kept saying continued/more government money from Washington is what's needed. (However to be fair, Republicans used the same tactics in the past.)