Inspector Generals in this government are for one job, to work independently to ensure that the taxpayer is protected from government corruption and abuse.
Not in Obama’s government it seems. Three IG’s have been fired in the last week and some pushback has started. First in this list is Gerald Walpin. He reported to Congress about the settlement of 400 grand paid by Obama cohort Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, St. HOPE academy (a pet of Johnson) and former executive director Dana Gonzalez. He reported that Johnson was not being required to repay all the money he misused AND he would once again be able to manage federal funds…even after he has shown his true stripes.
Walpin’s audit found that the program could not prove it was doing criminal background checks, had taken more money than it was due, didn’t follow certain Americorps rules, failed to regularly file required forms, and did some sloppy record-keeping.
In all, Walpin questioned awards to the program of $16.1 million and $773,000, mostly on administrative grounds. He also says the government should stop the program and recover $75 million spent over the past six years.
CUNY pledged to make changes, according to the audit, but didn’t go all the way. It also refused to return any money, and defended its policy of accepting background checks supplied by the city Department of Education. The Corporation for National and Community Service — the official name of the agency Walpin oversees — refused to ask for any of the money back from CUNY.
In a letter [pdf] to CUNY president Matthew Goldstein, Walpin in essence says that the money CUNY gets from Americorps is redundant. Basically, CUNY doesn’t need it:
“The program doesn’t work because it adds no service to the community which is not already provided by the Fellows program,” Walpin writes. “Therefore, taxpayers are not getting their money’s worth. The [government] could accomplish its goals more effectively if the funds for these grants were used . . . in communities where the need exists.”
Now there are accusations of deleted emails:
The FBI’s Sacramento division is investigating a former St. HOPE executive’s allegations of obstruction of justice, Acting U.S. Attorney Lawrence G. Brown confirmed Tuesday.
The news fuels the controversy that has followed Mayor Kevin Johnson since 2008, when his brainchild St. HOPE Academy first was investigated for misuse of public funds.
That investigation appeared to end in April when Brown’s office announced a settlement with Johnson, St. HOPE and former executive director Dana Gonzalez.
The settlement, hotly contested by the office of the inspector general for the federal Corporation for National and Community Service, required the repayment of more than $400,000 in misused grants for AmeriCorps volunteers.
However, Rick Maya, who officially left his position as executive director with St. HOPE last week, alleged in an April resignation letter that a member of the charter schools’ board deleted Johnson’s e-mails during the federal investigation. Those claims, uncovered by a public records request by The Bee, caught the interest of Brown’s office, who asked the FBI’s Sacramento division to look into it.
So Obama fired him stating the man was incompetent and suggested he was senile. Walpin fought back tho:
In the letter, White House Special Counsel Norman Eisen wrote that Walpin was “confused” and “disoriented” at a May board meeting, was “unduly disruptive,” and exhibited a “lack of candor” in providing information to decision makers.
“That’s a total lie,” Walpin said of the latter charge. And he said the accusation that he was dazed and confused at one meeting out of many was not only false, but poor rationale for his ouster.
“It appears to suggest that I was removed because I was disabled — based on one occasion out of hundreds,” he said.
“I would never say President Obama doesn’t have the capacity to continue to serve because of his (statement) that there are 56 states,” Walpin said, adding that the same holds for Vice President Biden and his “many express confusions that have been highlighted by the media.” Obama mistakenly said once on the campaign trail that he had traveled to 57 states.
Now that’s the type of IG we need. Not someone who will lay down and give up when pressed to the bidding of those in power. To prove the man wasn’t senile Beck even gave him a senility test:
Link: 
And now Dan Riehl reports that two more IG’s have been fired:
This is interesting. I looked around and perhaps I missed it on another blog, but the Chicago Tribune reports that it isn’t just Walpin’s firing over which Senator Grassley wants some answers. He’s worried about a pattern, as no fewer than three IG’s have recently been fired, all while investigating so-called sensitive issues. See Michelle for the latest on Walpin.
The dispute comes as Grassley, ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, is looking into the abrupt firings within the last week of two other inspectors general one of whom was fired by the White House and the other by the chair of the International Trade Commission.
Both inspectors general had investigated sensitive subjects at the time of their firings.
Grassley is now concerned about whether a pattern is emerging in which the independence of the government’s top watchdogs — whose jobs were authorized by Congress to look out for waste, fraud and abuse — is being put at risk.
One of the other IGs is Neil Barofsky, tasked with watching over the financial stimulus spending. The article raises questions as to whether or not the Obama administration is trying to stymie an investigation with dubious claims of attorney-client privilege.
Check out Dan’s post to learn all about the other two in more detail. Also check out Hot Air for a video that proves Kevin Johnson, the Sacramento Mayor is nothing but a crony for Obama.
Either way you look at this the MSM and the left should be screeching from the hilltops about the corruption, as they did when Bush fired three political appointed Federal Prosecutors. But noooooooo. We get half-assed reporting jobs like this one from the New York Times which Ed Morrissey posted on:
But what did Neil Lewis and the Times forget to include in the story?
The White House said Wednesday that President Obama had dismissed a government agency’s internal watchdog because he was incompetent and had behaved bizarrely, disputing accusations that he was fired because he had uncovered embarrassing problems in the AmeriCorps program.
Last week, Mr. Obama abruptly fired the watchdog, Gerald Walpin, the inspector general of the Corporation for National and Community Service, who was a holdover from the Bush administration, saying little except that he had lost confidence in Mr. Walpin.
But the president quickly encountered resistance from the Senate, including from a fellow Democrat, Claire McCaskill of Missouri, who said Mr. Obama had not provided sufficient reason for the dismissal, as required under a recent law intended to protect the independence of the corps of inspectors general.
Lewis and the Times forgot to include in this entire article two very salient facts about Walpin’s termination:
- The law governing the IGs require the White House to not just provide reasonable cause, but also a 30-day notice to Congress before taking any action.
- Lewis neglects to mention anywhere in this article that the White House called Walpin first in an attempt to intimidate him into resigning.
Both of these points are key to understanding the abuse of power attempted by the White House with Walpin. The White House wanted Walpin out, as well as discredited, as quickly as possible so that he could not interfere with a sweetheart deal to let a political ally off the hook for fraud. This became especially important when Walpin began communicating to Congress about his opposition to the deal with Kevin Johnson in Sacramento. They needed him out, and fast.
Instead of using the process that Barack Obama sponsored himself in the Senate, the White House tried to bully Walpin into quitting.
This kind of non-reaction by the left and our media proves once again that they’re nothing but hypocrites.
See author page