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.