Pentagon Chief auditor is reassigned(April Stephenson director of the Defense Contract Audit Agency)

[maddezmom]

Source: WaPo

The Pentagon's chief auditor was forced from her post Monday following sharp criticism from lawmakers over failures to hold defense contractors accountable for overcharges and poor performance.

April Stephenson, director of the Defense Contract Audit Agency since February 2008, has been reassigned to a new position inside the Pentagon and was replaced by a senior civilian Army official, according to internal e-mail messages.

Although the Defense Department cast the shift as a desire to bring a fresh perspective to an organization critical to stemming waste and fraud in military spending, a major factor in the decision was mounting concern on Capitol Hill with the agency's management practices and independence.

Among the problems were repeated failures to meet government auditing standards, a lack of planning and supervision, auditors being pressured to rush their work to meet productivity goals, and audit findings being changed to favor contractors without evidence to support the switch.



Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/26/AR2009102603478.html

[Sherman A1]

1. Good News Indeed.

But, reassigning one person even the chief auditor is only one small step (a positive step certainly) but much more needs to be done to hold the Pentagon accountable for all the money.

[thunder rising]

2. Looking into it further, this looks like a CYA move. The replacement may be just as bad.

The replacement is a long time insider that may be better at covering his trail.

[Solly Mack]

3. K&R

[pjt7]

4. I'd like to see more in-depth articles

about this topic.

It's crucial, is we are to re-take our Country back.

[maddezmom]

5. here is a good source for background infomation and reports

http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/1009/102609rb1.htm

[dixiegrrrrl]

9. oohhhhh...THAT is a good link.

Thank you so much. Always nice to have a resource like this.
:hi:

[maddezmom]

10. you're very welcome

:hi:

[Ian David]

6. "...since February 2008..." Another burrowing Bush Admin official mucking-up the works.

You know, someone needs to be in charge of taking inventory at McMurdo Sound.

[Dappleganger]

7. In the real world people like this get fired.

In government they're rewarded with a new opportunities to continue their horrible work ethics.

[eringer]

8. First Bill Reid and Now April Stephenson

This is the second DCAA director to be fired in the last 24 months. DCAA has an advisory role. They are not management. Firing directors is not the answer. The GAO has been pushing to make DCAA an independent agency from just about its inception. This objective continues to high on their agenda. Bringing in Fitzgerald was a victory for GAO (Fitzgerald is first non-DCAA director since inception of agency) as well as for the big contractors who must be absolutely giddy about the prospect of DCAA playing "52 pick-up" for three or four years while they pillage the coffers of both DoD and Non-DoD agencies.
That Joe Lieberman had anything to do with this should send a signal to everyone that this is not what should occur. He is what he said yesterday:

In a statement Oct. 26, Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., the committee chairman, said, “I hope that the DoD comptroller as well as the incoming DCAA director will continue to bring outside auditing expertise into the agency, strengthen quality control, improve training at all levels of DCAA, and prioritize audits based on the risk of contractor over-billings as well as waste, fraud and abuse.”

This is pure BS. The more time DCAA spends on "voucher reviews", the less time it can spend looking at the B of D minutes and drilling down into the actual contract costs.