Ex-officials accused of corruption

The Washington Times ^ | October 19th, 2002 | Jerry Seper

[End The Hypocrisy]

Two former high-ranking Pentagon officials in the Clinton administration were arrested Friday on charges of extortion, bribery, money-laundering and witness tampering in a suspected scheme involving the awarding of contracts to minority firms. Mr. Neal and Mr. Jones, both of whom are black, engaged in a wide range of criminal activities during their tenure at the Pentagon, using their positions as leverage to receive illegal payments from minority or disadvantaged Defense Department contractors seeking to participate in the preference programs. Mr. Neal had previously been awarded the Secretary of Defense's Outstanding Public Service Medal and Outstanding Achievement Award, the OMB's Special Performance Awards, OMB's EEO Award and OMB's Divisional Awards for Special Performance. Prosecution of the case is being handled by Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Friedrich.

[End The Hypocrisy]

Doesn't this all-too-prevalent sort of corruption with our tax dollars help explain why there's a peculiar reluctance among bureaucrats to acknowledge the potential value of competitive prize offerings [http://www.spaceprojects.com/prizes ] as a means of government procurement? Instead, they claim that their "central planning" approach is far better for minorities and women-owned businesses.

[End The Hypocrisy]

This scandal was so outrageous that even the Washington Times had to cover it. What's below is an EXCERPT:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A49287-2002Oct18.html

"A former Pentagon agency director and his top aide were charged Friday with extortion and bribery for allegedly demanding payoffs, prostitutes and expensive watches in exchange for government contracts. Robert L. Neal Jr. headed the Defense Department's Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization from 1996 to June 2001, and Francis D. Jones Jr. was his executive assistant. In a 52-page affidavit unsealed in U.S. District Court in Alexandria yesterday, federal agents said the two men instructed contractors to make payments to companies friendly to Neal and Jones to obtain or maintain lucrative federal jobs. The money would then be laundered through a sham company or a secret trust in the small principality of Liechtenstein, the affidavit said... The Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization was created to help small and minority businesses obtain defense contracts. The office awards few contracts, but it exerts influence within the Pentagon, officials said... The office also directly controlled $28 million annually for the Mentor-Protege Program, in which small businesses find a large Defense Department contractor to serve as a partner and receive both training and contracts. One small business in the program told investigators that in 1997 and 1998, Neal and Jones demanded several payments of $8,000 to $15,000, "or they would take certain adverse actions or cease taking helpful actions" for the participant's company, according to Stroot's affidavit."

[End The Hypocrisy]

As Linda Chavez has repeatedly mentioned, it's still too difficult to fire bureaucrats for improprieties. President Bush has fought to reform the civil service's hiring & firing policies through his Homeland Security initiative. As we recently saw, though, the Senate catered to union leadership (even though 40% of union members reportedly vote for Republican House of Representatives candidates). Meanwhile our national debt's just reached another record high while the civil servants nevertheless continue getting raises well above inflation (despite their already bloated salaries subsidized by taxpayers): http://www.publicdebt.treas.gov/opd/opdpenny.htm.

[kcamtx]

Sounds like minority terrorism......where's Jessie the Jackass when you need him.

[Fzob]

Sounds like they are graduates of the Jesse Jackson school of affirmative action.

[End The Hypocrisy]

Ha ha! Jesse's been one of the main reasons that these quota programs still exist in our government! These programs are dependance-perpetuating, and give lots of job security to the bureaucrats who administer them (with sticky fingers). The civil servants' unions contribute overwhelmingly to WHICH political party, by the way?

[afz400]

These guys merely saw what Clinton got away with and figured they could get some themselves.

[End The Hypocrisy]

There's pressure on these government officials to give some of the money back to Democrat political campaigns in exchange for being able to keep their power & influence. What's humorous is how the most corrupt bureaucrats also tend to receive the most commendations & awards from the White House when there's a corrupt occupant there...

[End The Hypocrisy]

>>>These guys merely saw what Clinton got away with and figured they could get some themselves.<<<


There are plenty more federal bureaucrats still living off of our tax dollars where those guys came from. And they are just as hostile as they can be behind the scenes to pro-entrepreneurial reforms that could liberate minorities from dependance on them (such as competitive prizes: http://www.spaceprojects.com/prizes ).

[Contra]

These guys rip off their own kind but it's still "demonize whitey" with this crowd. They will claim that the federal prosecutors and A.G. John Ashcroft are the new "lynch mob" against black men and they will have the support of the very black community that they ripped off. Hard to feel sorry for people with flawed thinking such as that.

[End The Hypocrisy]

Oh you're so right.

[henderson field]

This is a direct result of not beng able to fire government employees at all levels: federal state and local. Until they can be fired as readily as anyone in private industry, you will have these problems continuously. I'm not sure what the answer is. Civilian review boards? Ombudsman? New laws to protect taxpayers, with jail terms for corrupt government employees? We must have something and soon. Corruption in government is at an all-time high.

[End The Hypocrisy]

I think a good start would be the ease-of-firing which you mentioned. I also believe Newt Gingrich's prizes idea would work well at keeping corruption at a minimum (http://www.spaceprojects.com/prizes ). Beyond that, maybe we should cross that bridge if and when we get to it. :-)

[Bonaparte]

Another clipping for the bulging Clinton corruption file.

[GaltMeister]

It just be white devils tryin' to keeps de brodders on de plantashun.

[Tailgunner Joe]

bttt

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the heads up!

[mhking]

Black conservative ping

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[End The Hypocrisy]

Perhaps these corrupted set-aside programs should be eliminated so that corrupt bureaucrats can no longer use photogenic minorities to try and make their wasteful government programs' critics seem racist? Then there'd be more political pressure on our government to enact reforms that would help ALL small businesses. Among such reforms are tax incentives, government agencies' awarding of competitive prizes instead of government contracts (which tend to favor those with the most lobbyists), and interagency COMPETITION for the right to serve taxpayers. For now, the few contract crumb$ set aside for minorities by Uncle Sugar seem far outweighed by the potential gains to be realized for minorities and everyone else if such pro-entrepreneurial reforms finally become enacted (which they won't without minorities' pressuring our government along with the rest of us). Any thoughts, folks?