Here's an oldie but goodie -- State Dept. contracts to rebuild Iraq are vulnerable to billions in waste, fraud and abuse. The Wall Street Journal's August Cole relays an Iraq special inspector general report that police training by Virginia-based company DynCorp is not being adequately monitored by State Dept. ...

Walter Pincus of the Washington Post knows how to find the nitty gritty that uncovers the big picture.  Here he picks up on a new report by the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction that uncovers (drum roll, please) . . . the $20 washer!   Aecom Inc. of ...

I haven't blogged yet about Barack Obama firing Gerald Walpin, the Geroge W. Bush-appointed inspector general at the Corporation for National and Community Service, even though the story involves Kevin Johnson, the current mayor of Sacramento and one of my favorite childhood basketball players. But ...

Iowa Sen. Charles Grassley alleges that the Library of Congress is hushing up its Inspector General, reports Ed O'Keefe of the Washington Post. Grassley says the Library of Congress has interfered with investigations and softened the tones of IG reports.  For better ...

Ernesto Londono of the Washington Post had a disquieting piece today about how unprepared Iraq security forces are to take over when U.S. troops withdraw. There remains rampant embezzlement in the security forces and while this gross fraud was somewhat manageable when Iraq made ...

If I still lived in Washington, there is little doubt I would have gone to Capitol Hill yesterday to soak in  the FIRST EVER hearing held by the newly created Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs subcommittee on contracting oversight. Luckily Ed O'Keefe of the ...

Kim Murphy had a well-reported piece in the Los Angeles Times Sunday on rampant corruption by the U.S. Iraq reconstruction team. The Justice Department has registered three dozen bribery convictions of U.S. military disbursement officers in the $3.5 billion Commander's Emergency Response Program, which ...

Ed O'Keefe of the Washington Post flags a Project on Government Oversight report that reveals an embarrassing lack of response at the offices of inspectors general to whistleblower complaints. All 64 federal agencies have IGs and each are supposed to investigate serious complaints by ...

Charlie Peters says to always look below the fold and past the jump for the good stuff, and his injunction works in the case of Scott Shane’s recent look at "stimulus cop" Earl Devaney in the New York Times.

Devaney, appointed chairman of the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board, will track money spent in the Obama Administration’s fiscal stimulus package and, as Devaney puts it, try “to make it possible for Mr. and Mrs. Smith in Ohio to see exactly how the money is spent.” But towards the end of Shane’s article – after a litany of positive comments – the author notes that critic Jeff Ruch has called Devaney “the Deflector General,” calling Ruch a “rare critic [of Devaney] . . . for emphasizing sensational corruption cases over more fundamental change.”   

As Matt Blake has pointed out, Devaney has some significant accomplishments and has, without question, uncovered corruption and waste, from Jack Abramoff’s criminality to ethical violations at the Dept. of the Interior.  So I called Ruch to find out what “fundamental change” Devaney’s visible successes might be keeping from view.

A new Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction audit shows that Pasadena-based contractor Parsons got $142 million in Pentagon cash for work it didn't do. Parsons was supposed to build a prison in the Diyala province as well as border patrol and courthouse stations.

But as the Washington Post's Dana ...