stevekaw
10-16-2006, 22:11
http://www.federaltimes.com/index.php?S=2174877
A flat-screen TV in the office bathroom?
IG: Ex-ATF chief had lavish tastes
By DANIEL FRIEDMAN
October 16, 2006
When a senior official at the Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Bureau told former ATF director Carl Truscott that the agency could not afford his hiring plan, the onetime Secret Service agent called her pessimistic.
“You keep raining on my parade,” Truscott said, according to an Oct. 11 report by Justice Department Inspector General Glenn Fine.
In the course of detailing questionable expenditures and mismanagement by Truscott, the report (http://www.usdoj.gov/oig/special/s0610/final.pdf) describes senior ATF managers trying, with mixed success, to scale back expensive initiatives pushed by the director in pursuit of what he called his “vision.”
According to the report, Truscott, who resigned in August, violated ethics rules by ordering employees to help his nephew with a high school video project. Among a dozen instances of poor judgement cited in the report, Truscott wasted tens of thousands of dollars by taking unnecessary trips with an entourage. And he asked two female assistants, a GS-12 and GS-13, to prepare lunch for him and visitors, and to then announce, “Lunch is served, sir.”
But poor judgement and questionable management by Truscott, who formerly headed President Bush’s security detail, extended beyond personal extravagance. He squandered millions through an ill-advised hiring plan and last-minute changes to the design of ATF’s new headquarters, the IG report said. He would have wasted more if subordinates had not stopped him, it added.
Michael Sullivan was named acting ATF director in August.
ATF spokesman Rich Marianos issued a short statement saying the agency has complied with the inspector general’s recommendations. Marianos and other officials declined to comment further.
But Jon Adler, vice president of the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association, which includes many ATF agents as members, said agency officials hope that by emphasizing that questionable conduct was limited to Truscott, they can stave off morale damage and budget cuts.
“We don’t want Congress to lose sight of the mission of ATF. . . . Funding needs to go the men and women enforcing the statutes, not to furniture or clap-on, clap-off devices,” Adler said, referring to items Truscott ordered for his suite.
Hiring policy
ATF has faced budget shortfalls since transferring in 2003 from the Treasury Department to the Justice Department. The prior director had instituted a hiring freeze to cut costs.
After taking over in April 2004, however, Truscott pushed an aggressive hiring scheme, adding almost 300 employees from fiscal 2004 to 2006 in an attempt to reach the full number of employees authorized in the agency’s budget. Truscott told inspectors that the plan was a response to complaints from field offices that ATF was understaffed. Aides said Truscott believed “scrubbing accounts” would produce new funds.
But senior managers argued that ATF did not have enough money to meet its hiring goal.
With the agency’s operational budget set to drop in fiscal 2006, senior managers, who generally supported some initial hiring, pressed at numerous meetings to institute a freeze in 2006, according to inspectors. Officials argued a halt could save about $20 million. But Truscott dismissed their concerns, the report says.
When the assistant director of ATF’s Office of Training and Professional Development said the agency could not pay the proposed number of new hires, Truscott said they would “find the money.”
Officials told investigators that Truscott also brushed aside field managers’ reports that they did not have space for new hires. He also dismissed an assertion by an aide to the deputy attorney general that ATF was engaged in “gross mismanagement” by hiring while “broke.”
ATF Deputy Director Edgar Domenech said he told Truscott that ATF “has less money and more people. It’s going to affect the agency’s ability to function.” Truscott responded by accusing Domenech of “trying to derail [my] vision,” Domenech told investigators.
The report says the hiring plan hindered ATF’s ability to carry out its mission, and threatened funding for investigative equipment, new vehicles, contractors who do ballistics work, training and travel. Financial shortfalls also forced ATF to cut back on the purchase of new ballistic vests, according to investigators, leaving hundreds of agents wearing expired vests.
Truscott told investigators that no one disagreed with his plan and that he was never told vests were an issue.
Domenech halted the hiring program after Truscott surrendered budget control in February when the inspector general began investigating him based on anonymous complaints.
New headquarters
The report states that Truscott ordered extensive design changes to ATF’s new headquarters. The building is now $20 million over its $120 million budget.
Many of the changes concerned Truscott’s office suite. In meetings that subordinates called frequent, long and indecisive, he ordered wood floors and panels, later estimated to cost about $243,000, built-in book cases, 15 pieces of furniture, and a host of other items eventually summarized in a five-page memo. The list includes a retractable TV monitor, double doors that open by remote control and a bathroom featuring a flat-screen TV and telephone.
According to the report, Truscott also suggested numerous changes to the design of ATF’s Joint Support Operation Center, which functions as a call-in center for agents in the field, giving them “situational awareness.” He wanted the center to function as a showpiece for ATF. Calling the original design “not elaborate enough,” Truscott suggested a “Star Wars-type center,” the project manager told investigators.
His suggestions included technical upgrades, a theater-style layout, a glass-enclosed “VIP viewing room,” and a flat-screen monitor to display news broadcasts and closed-circuit television channels, ATF officials said.
Truscott told investigators he merely approved the command center’s redesign, which the General Services Administration estimated cost $1.5 million.
Truscott also spent “an excessive amount of time” on plans for the ATF’s gym, according to the report. Investigators say he involved himself in details like whether showers would have soap dispensers and suggested $137,000 worth of new equipment, despite a staff memo showing that using items from ATF’s existing facility would save about $58,000.
According to Domenech and a senior staff member, Truscott requested executive showers, but backed off when Domenech refused.
By late 2005, ATF was in danger of allocating more money than it had for the new building, the report states. In December, Domenech issued a “do not proceed” directive to GSA for noncritical design change orders, most relating to the command center and Truscott’s office.
The order saved about $1.4 million, according to the report. Several ATF assistant directors told investigators that they learned of Truscott’s changes in January and were outraged.
Truscott could not be reached for comment. But in a Sept. 25 letter responding to the report, he said the document lacks context. It fails “to make mention of the significant progress ATF made during my stewardship and under difficult circumstances, or balance the allegations made against my unblemished professional career,” he wrote.
Truscott called the report “negative in tone.”
E-mail: dfriedman@federaltimes.com
A flat-screen TV in the office bathroom?
IG: Ex-ATF chief had lavish tastes
By DANIEL FRIEDMAN
October 16, 2006
When a senior official at the Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Bureau told former ATF director Carl Truscott that the agency could not afford his hiring plan, the onetime Secret Service agent called her pessimistic.
“You keep raining on my parade,” Truscott said, according to an Oct. 11 report by Justice Department Inspector General Glenn Fine.
In the course of detailing questionable expenditures and mismanagement by Truscott, the report (http://www.usdoj.gov/oig/special/s0610/final.pdf) describes senior ATF managers trying, with mixed success, to scale back expensive initiatives pushed by the director in pursuit of what he called his “vision.”
According to the report, Truscott, who resigned in August, violated ethics rules by ordering employees to help his nephew with a high school video project. Among a dozen instances of poor judgement cited in the report, Truscott wasted tens of thousands of dollars by taking unnecessary trips with an entourage. And he asked two female assistants, a GS-12 and GS-13, to prepare lunch for him and visitors, and to then announce, “Lunch is served, sir.”
But poor judgement and questionable management by Truscott, who formerly headed President Bush’s security detail, extended beyond personal extravagance. He squandered millions through an ill-advised hiring plan and last-minute changes to the design of ATF’s new headquarters, the IG report said. He would have wasted more if subordinates had not stopped him, it added.
Michael Sullivan was named acting ATF director in August.
ATF spokesman Rich Marianos issued a short statement saying the agency has complied with the inspector general’s recommendations. Marianos and other officials declined to comment further.
But Jon Adler, vice president of the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association, which includes many ATF agents as members, said agency officials hope that by emphasizing that questionable conduct was limited to Truscott, they can stave off morale damage and budget cuts.
“We don’t want Congress to lose sight of the mission of ATF. . . . Funding needs to go the men and women enforcing the statutes, not to furniture or clap-on, clap-off devices,” Adler said, referring to items Truscott ordered for his suite.
Hiring policy
ATF has faced budget shortfalls since transferring in 2003 from the Treasury Department to the Justice Department. The prior director had instituted a hiring freeze to cut costs.
After taking over in April 2004, however, Truscott pushed an aggressive hiring scheme, adding almost 300 employees from fiscal 2004 to 2006 in an attempt to reach the full number of employees authorized in the agency’s budget. Truscott told inspectors that the plan was a response to complaints from field offices that ATF was understaffed. Aides said Truscott believed “scrubbing accounts” would produce new funds.
But senior managers argued that ATF did not have enough money to meet its hiring goal.
With the agency’s operational budget set to drop in fiscal 2006, senior managers, who generally supported some initial hiring, pressed at numerous meetings to institute a freeze in 2006, according to inspectors. Officials argued a halt could save about $20 million. But Truscott dismissed their concerns, the report says.
When the assistant director of ATF’s Office of Training and Professional Development said the agency could not pay the proposed number of new hires, Truscott said they would “find the money.”
Officials told investigators that Truscott also brushed aside field managers’ reports that they did not have space for new hires. He also dismissed an assertion by an aide to the deputy attorney general that ATF was engaged in “gross mismanagement” by hiring while “broke.”
ATF Deputy Director Edgar Domenech said he told Truscott that ATF “has less money and more people. It’s going to affect the agency’s ability to function.” Truscott responded by accusing Domenech of “trying to derail [my] vision,” Domenech told investigators.
The report says the hiring plan hindered ATF’s ability to carry out its mission, and threatened funding for investigative equipment, new vehicles, contractors who do ballistics work, training and travel. Financial shortfalls also forced ATF to cut back on the purchase of new ballistic vests, according to investigators, leaving hundreds of agents wearing expired vests.
Truscott told investigators that no one disagreed with his plan and that he was never told vests were an issue.
Domenech halted the hiring program after Truscott surrendered budget control in February when the inspector general began investigating him based on anonymous complaints.
New headquarters
The report states that Truscott ordered extensive design changes to ATF’s new headquarters. The building is now $20 million over its $120 million budget.
Many of the changes concerned Truscott’s office suite. In meetings that subordinates called frequent, long and indecisive, he ordered wood floors and panels, later estimated to cost about $243,000, built-in book cases, 15 pieces of furniture, and a host of other items eventually summarized in a five-page memo. The list includes a retractable TV monitor, double doors that open by remote control and a bathroom featuring a flat-screen TV and telephone.
According to the report, Truscott also suggested numerous changes to the design of ATF’s Joint Support Operation Center, which functions as a call-in center for agents in the field, giving them “situational awareness.” He wanted the center to function as a showpiece for ATF. Calling the original design “not elaborate enough,” Truscott suggested a “Star Wars-type center,” the project manager told investigators.
His suggestions included technical upgrades, a theater-style layout, a glass-enclosed “VIP viewing room,” and a flat-screen monitor to display news broadcasts and closed-circuit television channels, ATF officials said.
Truscott told investigators he merely approved the command center’s redesign, which the General Services Administration estimated cost $1.5 million.
Truscott also spent “an excessive amount of time” on plans for the ATF’s gym, according to the report. Investigators say he involved himself in details like whether showers would have soap dispensers and suggested $137,000 worth of new equipment, despite a staff memo showing that using items from ATF’s existing facility would save about $58,000.
According to Domenech and a senior staff member, Truscott requested executive showers, but backed off when Domenech refused.
By late 2005, ATF was in danger of allocating more money than it had for the new building, the report states. In December, Domenech issued a “do not proceed” directive to GSA for noncritical design change orders, most relating to the command center and Truscott’s office.
The order saved about $1.4 million, according to the report. Several ATF assistant directors told investigators that they learned of Truscott’s changes in January and were outraged.
Truscott could not be reached for comment. But in a Sept. 25 letter responding to the report, he said the document lacks context. It fails “to make mention of the significant progress ATF made during my stewardship and under difficult circumstances, or balance the allegations made against my unblemished professional career,” he wrote.
Truscott called the report “negative in tone.”
E-mail: dfriedman@federaltimes.com