‘POGO’- A 5 Star Non-Profit Government Watchdog Informing The Public For Over 40 Years

 https://www.pogo.org/about

By Ken Larson

Having been on the inside of the workings of our defense industrial base, I have been constantly impressed with the objectivity, ethics and coverage of the ” PROJECT ON GOVERNMENT OVERSIGHT (POGO)”to surface issues in a clear, factual fashion that citizens must be made aware of.

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The issues range from waste, fraud and abuse, budgetary matters concerning our largest federal agency, ethics in government and our role on the world stage.

I was a whistle blower years ago when there were few protections for such individuals. I appreciate the support POGO lends these days to that vital function, particularly in the defense industry.

POGO’s “Federal Contractor Misconduct Data Base” is an eye opener. It is maintained scrupulously with up to date public records of major corporation government judgments containing details of judicial proceedings and related fines.

The support of POGO for ethics in government has been around for decades. Its reputation is sterling, and its regular Congressional testimony is riveting.

https://greatnonprofits.org/org/the-project-on-government-oversight-inc?search=Project%20on%20governm

Portrait of a Crooked Government Contractor

Image:  The Economist

COMPUTER SCIENCES CORPORATION (CSC)  –  Waste, Fraud and Abuse BY THE NUMBERS

Financial Manipulation

“SEC Press Release”

” The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged Computer Sciences Corporation and former executives with manipulating financial results and concealing significant problems about the company’s largest and most high-profile contract.CSC agreed to pay a $190 million penalty to settle the charges, and five of the eight charged executives agreed to settlements. ”

Securities and Exchange Commission Press Release

Resume Padding, Time Card Fraud and Kickbacks

“Project on Government Oversight”

“This wasn’t CSC’s first run-in with its federal customers. In 2000, CSC’s credit services unit paid $6.4 million to settle allegations that it made false claims for payment on federal student loan programs. 

A few months earlier, CSC paid $8,730 to settle fraudulent billing allegations on a contract with the Defense Commissary Agency. In that instance, CSC employees were accused of charging the government for the time they were attending college classes. 

In 2005, CSC reimbursed the government $1.3 million after discovering a former employee, over a nine-year period, billed NASA for payments made to fictitious companies. 

In 2008, CSC agreed to fork over almost $1.4 million to resolve a False Claims Act lawsuit alleging it took part in a massive kickback and bribery scheme among federal IT contractors dating back to the 1990s.”

False Claims, Securities Litigation, Software Litigation

“Project on Government Oversight”

“Founded in 1959, Computer Sciences Corporation is a global information technology (IT) services company. With approximately 80,000 employees, CSC provides systems design and integration, IT and business process outsourcing, applications software development, Web and application hosting, and management consulting.

Total Number of Instances: 8″

Contractor Misconduct Data Base - CSC

A History of  Government Cronyism and Poor Performance for Over a Decade

“Washington Post” 2005

“Groundbreaker, a $2 billion effort to modernize and outsource the agency’s [NSA] electronics infrastructure, including computers, software and networks. 

A CSC-led team in 2001 won the Groundbreaker contract. As part of the contract, about 1,000 NSA employees became employees of CSC or one of its teammates. 

Groundbreaker and Trailblazer were supposed to work together, but both are believed to be behind schedule and over budget, Aid said. “You cannot do one without the other,” he said. 

Hayden, in his testimony in April, acknowledged that NSA initially had mishandled the Trailblazer contract. “We learned within Trailblazer that when we asked industry for something they had or something close to what they already had, they were remarkable in providing us a response, an outcome,” 

Hayden told the committee. “When we asked them for something that no one had yet invented, they weren’t any better at inventing it than we were in doing it ourselves.”

Trail Blazer Loses Its Way

Why is the contractor still doing business spending your taxes under billions in active contracts? We suggest you inquire with your Senator and your Congressman.

Franz Gayl Needs Your Help

UPDATE from POGO - 17 November 2011:

"The Marine Corps whistleblower who exposed the Department of Defense's (DoD) delay in providing troops with Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles (MRAPs) has received notice that he can return to work, ending a four-year ordeal in which he had lost his security clearance and faced the loss of his job.

The Navy’s decision (the Marine Corps is within the Navy) to reinstate Gayl’s security clearance came after the Office of Special Counsel (OSC) intervened in the case in October by asking the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) to stay a decision to give Gayl, a Marine Corps science advisor, an indefinite suspension without pay. Gayl's decision in 2007 to tell Congress and the public about the delays in providing troops the heavily armored MRAPs forced the DoD to speed up production of the vehicles and, as a result, likely saved the lives of thousands of troops and prevented serious injuries to many thousands more.

In its request to the MSPB, the OSC cited a petition that the Project On Government Oversight (POGO) and the Government Accountability Project (GAP) had submitted to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta. Nearly 4,000 people signed the joint POGO/GAP petition. The OSC agreed with petitioners that “there are reasonable grounds to believe” Gayl's suspension violates the Whistleblower Protection Act.

The MSPB issued a 45-day stay on Oct. 13 to give the OSC time to investigate whether Gayl had been retaliated against. After Gayl blew the whistle, he lost his security clearance, which kept him from returning to work. His attorneys at GAP argued that the indefinite suspension without pay was a way to "starve him out" of the Marine Corps.

"As former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates noted, thousands and thousands of Marines owe their lives and safety to the brave actions of Franz Gayl," POGO Executive Director Danielle Brian said. "What Gayl has endured is a gross injustice. It's not the way this country should treat its heroes and only underscores the need for Congress to immediately pass the Platts-Van Hollen Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act of 2011."

Gayl issued the following statement through GAP:

“I want to express my deepest thanks to all who have supported me throughout this ordeal. It goes without saying that absent the continuous advocacy of GAP and POGO, I would have been forced from government service years ago. However, the Office of Special Counsel (OSC) under the inspiring leadership of Carolyn Lerner has been the godsend that enabled this recent turn-around. OSC's determination to request a stay, and the MSPB's willingness to support it, allowed enough time for the Department of the Navy to deliver a considered and favorable security adjudication that now permits me to get back to work. I am as committed as ever to return to my Marine Corps to work hard in support of all Marines in the capacities for which I was hired. Again, without OSC, GAP, POGO, and the MSPB, this renewed opportunity would not be possible!”

According to the Washington Post in the following article, Marine Corps Civilian Scientist, Franz Gayl:

“…..made a name for himself a few years ago as a Marine Corps whistle blower, a civilian scientist who helped push the Pentagon to shift its Iraqi weapons strategy. Senators called him a hero for disclosures that helped get heavily armored vehicles known as MRAPs to the battlefield.

But a few weeks ago, Gayl found himself booted from a room where confidential materials are handled and stripped of his security clearance. His superiors accused him of "a disregard for regulations, a pattern of poor judgment and intentional misconduct" - behavior that they said "indicates you are unreliable and untrustworthy."

The article goes on to explain that incidents sited in the clearance removal decision were not reported officially as security breaches, but were judgement calls on the part of Gayl's immediate superiors, upon whom his disclosures in the whistle blower incident had applied considerable pressure.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/19/AR2010111903475.html?sid=ST2010111903784

The Project on Government Oversight (POGO) has mounted an electronic mail-in campaign to get the decision reversed:

https://secure3.convio.net/pogo/site/Advocacy?pagename=homepage&page=UserAction&id=194&autologin=true

Will the public respond to this project and can we continue to tolerate this kind of behavior on the part of military officials in a bloated Pentagon spending billions of tax payer dollars each year?