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Wednesday, March 07, 2007
GSA's Long War on Accountability
As the saga of the General Services Administration (Or GSA, a government agency that handles contracts for other agencies) Adminstrator Lurita Doan unfolds, it may be worth taking a look back at all that got us where we are. There seem to be four things at issue: a contract with Sun Microsystems, a contract with a friend of Doan's, the GSA's inspector general's budget, and talk of GSA employees electoral campaigning.
So far, it amounts to abuses of power, a war on accountability, a potential violations of federal law.
Here's a condensed timeline of what we know so far:
- January 2006: The GSA Office of the Inspector General (OIG) conducts a pre-audit of a contract renewal with Sun Microsystems. It concludes that GSA could get a better deal with a different company.
- July 25th: Doan allegedly intervenes to steer a $20,000 contract to a long-time friend of Doan's, Edie Fraser.
- Summer: The GSA OIG launches an investigation into GSA dealings with Fraser's businesses.
- August 4th: The no-bid arrangement under which the Fraser contract would have been awarded is terminated. The contract is not awarded to Fraser. But Doan issues a letter to GSA staff encouraging them to find a way to award the contract to a company associated with Fraser.
- August 18th: Doan calls IG employees "terrorists."
- August 29th: Doan allegedly met with senior OIG auditing staff and signaled that the contract with Sun Microsystems needed to be renewed.
- September 9th: GSA completes the contract with Sun on less favorable terms.
- October 19th: GovExec reports that Doan plans to outsource contract pre-audits (which was how the GSA OIG had found problems with the Sun contract)
- December 4th: Doan says publicly that OIG employees "terrorize" GSA employees.
- December 8th: GovExec reports that Doan had revised and reduced the IG's FY08 budget request.
- January 19th 2007: Washington Post prints a front-page story on the Fraser contract.
- January 26th: Doan allegedly has a teleconference where she asks how GSA could help "our" candidates in the 2008 election. Electioneering with federal resources is a violation of the Hatch act.
- February 26th: Doan's attorney asks for an investigation of the IG's office.
- March 6th: Waxman releases a letter to Doan on contracting irregularities, based on newly obtained information from current and former GSA officials.
- March 20th(?): Doan is to testify before House Government Reform and Oversight Committee.
Posted by Matt Lewis
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