Saturday, March 10, 2018

Weeding Out Waste and Fraud at Federal Agencies

A February 20 DOI inspector general's report found that Richard Ruggiero, head of the Department of International Conservation, which is within the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, had violated federal ethics laws when Ruggiero took advantage of a federal cooperative agreement providing nearly $325,000 in funding to the International Fund for Animal Welfare.

The agreement financially benefited a family member who was an independent contractor with IFAW. The I.G. report says that before Ruggiero took over DIC, the department had signed a cooperative agreement with IFAW to establish a professional training program for conservation leaders overseas, providing the $126,871 to fund the program.

According to the I.G.'s report, neither Ruggiero nor his family member "Disclosed their relationship in writing" to the FWS, a requirement of federal ethics laws.

Beyond Ruggiero's wrongdoing, the I.G. report says several senior employees knew that Ruggiero had a conflict of interest but failed to report this fact to their supervisors or the Ethics Office, as required by agency rules.

Zinke responded to the report with a statement saying, "This Inspector General report identified exactly the kind of mismanagement and tax dollar abuse I have been concerned about and I am looking to root out at Interior. The previous administration created an environment that was so unaccountable that it led to bad actors taking advantage of taxpayers in plain sight."

The I.G. report noted that under the terms of the project, DOE was supposed to obtain invoices from Summit prior to allowing expenses or reimbursing the company, but the I.G. found that DOE had approved more than $38 million in reimbursements without receiving proper documentation.

Some recent inspector general reports from within various federal agencies show that the Trump administration is attempting to weed out abuse, fraud, and waste in government programs.

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2018/03/weeding_out_waste_and_fraud_at_federal_agencies.html

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