Several Environmental Protection Agency employees obstructed an
investigation into the mismanagement that allowed a senior EPA official
to bilk taxpayers for nearly $900,000, the EPA Inspector General said in
a letter to Sen. David Vitter (R., La.) released Wednesday.
EPA employees threatened Inspector General investigators, refused to
cooperate, and handed out non-disclosure agreements to other employees
to keep them from being interviewed, EPA Inspector General Arthur Elkins
Jr. wrote in response to a request for information by Vitter on the
case.
“Over the past 12 months, there have been several EPA officials who
have taken action to prevent [the Office of Investigations] OI from
conducting investigations or have attempted to obstruct investigations
through intimidation,” Elkins wrote.
John Beale pleaded guilty in
September 2013 to time card and travel fraud spanning two decades and
amounting to nearly $900,000 in taxpayer dollars. Beale also spent a
total of two and a half years absent from work, claiming he was away on
CIA business. He was sentenced to 32 months in prison in December 2013.
After closing its criminal investigation, the Inspector General began
an audit of the lack of internal controls that allowed Beale to defraud
the agency. That audit has implicated a growing number of EPA
officials.
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Thursday, February 27, 2014
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