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Washington PostA former Justice Department grant-making administrator violated federal ethics and procurement rules in awarding hundreds of thousands of dollars in sole source contracts to ideologically favored companies and individuals, the department's inspector general concluded today.
The administrator, J. Robert Flores, was a political appointee during former president George Bush's administration who left his post after the inauguration in January. The department's public integrity section declined to pursue civil or criminal charges against Flores after ethics watchdogs forwarded their findings, investigators said.
The report issued this morning culminates a nearly two-year investigation into alleged irregularities with grants awarded by the Justice Department's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention during the Bush administration.
Investigators focused in part on the hiring of Hector Rene Fonseca, a former Colombian military official who worked as a contractor to the office between November 2004 and July 2007, when he collected about $281,000 for his work on anti-gang programs.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/30/AR2009043002302.html?hpid=topnews