Congressional Investigative Agency Looking Into Possible Misuse Of NASA Funds, Resources

According to senior NASA officials, the Government Accountability Office, Congress' investigative agency, is looking into former NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe's tenure at the agency, and whether or not he incurred in a wasteful misuse of government aircraft and travel budgets. The officials were careful to note that the investigation is not looking for evidence of fraud, but rather of waste and mismanagement of funds and resources.

Fearing reprisals, the officials who spoke with the Associated Press did not want to be identified. However, two have already been questioned by the GAO investigators, who declined to comment on their work.

O'Keefe's resignation of his position at NASA became final on February 11, and he will begin his new job as Chancellor of LSU. The university expressed their enthusiasm at his acceptance of the position and praised his abilities as an accountant. However, the GAO investigation is raising questions about how O'Keefe handled finances at the space agency.

One of the issues on which the GAO team is focusing is O'Keefe's habit of never flying commercially, but rather using agency aircraft for all his trips. This cost the agency quite a bit of money, and went against the government's policy of having employees use commercial travel whenever possible. One of the officials went so far as to state that O'Keefe would often "fill the planes with ballast," a term meant to refer to the practice of bringing other employees with him that did not have a need to be on the aircraft or the trip. "A lot of the times, at the last minute, Sean would be looking for people to put on the plane. We would call it baggage," an official said.

NASA declined to commment on the investigation. "I don't think it would be proper or appropriate to comment on an ongoing investigation," NASA spokesman Glenn Mahone said. "I think it would be premature and a little inappropriate for us to comment on any report that may be forthcoming in the future." LSU officials not only declined to comment, but appeared to not be aware that the investigation was in progress, after Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine requested it in response to hearing about financial problems at the agency.

"I am concerned about whether NASA has an effective system of internal controls in place to prevent fraud, waste and abuse of taxpayer resources," Collins wrote to GAO on June 28, 2004.

FMI: www.gao.gov, www.nasa.gov