POLITICS - USDA Shuts Down Congressional Audit

[Guest guest]

Hmm, not suspicious at all, is it? Business as usual.

- Gray, Chandler, AZ (SE Valley chapter)

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jmMDqqS37QeJR2uBIwSOwQPtBUaAD8V3K7582

USDA Shuts Down Congressional Audit

By BEN EVANS – 2 days ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Agriculture Department abruptly ordered

congressional auditors to leave its Washington offices this week and

told employees not to cooperate with them.

" You are hereby instructed not to meet with any member of the

(Government Accountability Office) today, or until this matter is

resolved, " Watts, head of the department's office of

adjudication, wrote to employees Wednesday in an e-mail obtained by

The Associated Press.

The auditors were seeking information for an ongoing review of

Agriculture's civil rights office, including whether the department

had provided false information about the office's progress in handling

discrimination complaints.

J. , Agriculture's deputy general counsel, said the GAO

investigators called the department Wednesday morning to say they were

on their way over and wanted to speak with certain employees.

He said the auditors refused to let department attorneys sit in on the

meetings. After initially allowing interviews to proceed, department

officials stopped them and told the investigators to leave the

building, said.

" We are not interested in having our employees potentially put

themselves at risk when they have not yet been advised of their rights

and when we were not allowed to provide counsel, " said. " We also

pointed out to them that while they hold themselves out to be criminal

investigators, GAO is an arm of Congress and has no authority to

investigate violations of criminal law. "

A spokesman for the GAO, the investigative arm of Congress, said

federal agencies cooperate with its audits in the " vast majority " of

cases.

" In those instances where we encounter certain difficulties, we

consider an array of options, " said the spokesman, Young. He

said the audit is expected to be completed in July.

Lawrence Lucas, president of the USDA Coalition of Minority Employees,

said the GAO inquiry focuses on whether Agriculture presents

misleadingly rosy accounts of the civil rights office's accomplishments.

" They had about seven to nine people who were willing to talk to GAO

and that's why they kicked them out of the building, " Lucas said.

One employee who spoke with The Associated Press on condition of

anonymity out of fear of retaliation, met with the auditors before

they were asked to leave. The worker said department attorneys stood

outside the interview room, telling employees that they had no

obligation to talk to the GAO auditors.

said the department has been cooperating with the GAO for a year

but will not let its employees discuss the matter until it gets more

information about what is being investigated.

" We don't have anything to hide, " said. " We have absolutely no

understanding of why anybody at GAO believes there's been any

misrepresentation. "

Although executive agencies frequently chafe at the GAO's findings,

the agency has a reputation as an independent, nonpartisan

investigative office.

The agency has clashed with the Bush administration, however, most

notably in 2002 when it sued Vice President Dick Cheney to get the

names of energy executives who met with a White House task force

working on President Bush's energy policy. The lawsuit marked the

first time in the GAO's nearly 90-year history that it had resorted to

asking a federal judge to force a president or vice president or their

aides to release documents.

The GAO lost the case.