Federal Transparency - More Broken Promises?

Tuesday, June 16, 2009 10:20 AM by Mattie Duppler

The administration that promised to bring the most transparent government in history to the American people is backpedaling on that promise once again. News is now surfacing about the firing of Inspector General Gerald Walpin after he investigated the misuse of Americorps money by a well-known Obama supporter. After the Corporation for National and Community Service asked Walpin to investigate Sacramento Mayor and former NBA player Kevin Johnson, he was found to have used $800,000 from taxpayer-funded Americorps for political gain and personal services, including washing his car.

The story, however, is not just one of fraud and abuse. The misuse of the money occurred when Mr. Johnson was the director of the nonprofit that received the Americorps money; when he was elected mayor, the penalties (suspension from receiving federal funds and the repayment of some of the money he had laundered) were suspended by the Attorney General, who began to communicate directly with the Corporation instead of through Inspector General Walpin, as protocol dictates.

Last week, the Inspector General received a phone call from Norman Eisen, the Special Counsel to the President for Ethics and Government Reform telling him to either resign or he would be fired – the concurrence with the scandal involving Johnson was “coincidence” according the administration. Moreover, Mr. Walpin was not given a reason for his removal from office. The administration contends that Walpin’s investigation of Kevin Johnson rested on shaky evidence which gave them grounds for his dismissal although the Attorney General had already reached an agreement with Johnson on the grounds that the allegation of fraud were true.

As alarming as it is that a public official can be fired for standing up to the President and trying to protect taxpayer’s money, legislation sponsored by Obama when he was a senator provided safguards against just that – the Inspectors General Reform Act requires the president to give Congress 30 days notice of his removal of an IG from office, as well as supply a reason for the firing. The lack of transparency in these proceedings is suspect, but the lack of transparency in the continual feeding of taxpayers’ money to public officials who operate in the cloak of secrecy like Mr. Johnson is worse. While the president continues to pledge unprecedented transparency in the administration of stimulus money, it seems this is another promise Mr. Obama has broken.

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