Retiring postal chief accused of misconduct

Helena Montana Independent Record ^ | August 21, 2003 | Associated Press

[The_Media_never_lie]

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Postal Service's retiring inspector general hired a team-building consultant at $3,000 a day, held ‘‘mind-numbing'' eight-hour working lunches and erupted in anger at a staff-produced ‘‘inspirational'' film that she thought would upstage her presentation of accomplishments, a government report says.

The conduct of Karla Corcoran, whose retirement was announced Tuesday by the Postal Governors, was criticized in a 274-page report filled with employee accusations of mismanagement and waste. Corcoran, in an interview, strongly disputed the allegations.

Much of the criticism involved team-building meetings, with employees charging that a major investigation was almost jeopardized because it conflicted with such an event.

Other employees accused Corcoran of sending ‘‘snitches'' to meetings to keep track of comments, of trying to hide meeting expenses and of authorizing purchase of a $4,500 executive treadmill in a headquarters that had a full gym. She also was accused of overspending for a $6.6 million computer program that was described as a Cadillac — when a Chevy would do.

Corcoran, the first postal inspector general, disputed all the accusations except the treadmill, saying the purchase was a mistake and she ordered the equipment returned.

The report was prepared by the President's Council on Integrity and Efficiency, an organization primarily composed of inspectors general — the agency watchdogs who guard against fraud, waste and abuse.

‘‘They sit down with all your enemies and say, ‘Tell me all your dirt,' Corcoran said of the council investigators. She said many employees in her 700-worker office would have supported her if they had been interviewed.

Corcoran is not the first inspector general to receive criticism.

In 1998, then-Treasury Department inspector general Valerie Lau resigned after congressional investigators accused her of violating federal contracting law.

This year, the inspector general of the Health and Human Services Department, Janet Rehnquist, resigned under fire. Several government reports and lawmakers criticized her treatment of senior staff, her decision to delay an audit on the request of an aide to Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida and her improper possession of a government handgun.

The psychologist hired by Corcoran as a team-building leader, Dr. Joe Mancusi, told investigators his $3,000 per day fee was the lowest he charged, and he did so because Corcoran used him frequently.

Corcoran said Mancusi gave staff members ‘‘supervisory skills, spent a lot of time talking to people about their personality, about how they react under stress.''

While not denying holding long meetings that an aide described as ‘‘mind-numbing,'' Corcoran said the sessions were needed to organize a new office that not only grew, but established an innovative pay system based on performance — unique for government agencies.

At one such retreat, employees said, the staff was planning to show a short inspirational film to highlight the inspector general's accomplishments.

An aide involved in the film said Corcoran yelled at her: ‘‘You're stealing my show. I was going to highlight my accomplishments. You're trying to take it away from me. You think you're better than me.''

The aide sent an electronic message that ‘‘Karla's having a cow.''

By accident, the message went to Corcoran. The report said the staff member never returned to work, except to clean out her personal effects accompanied by an escort.

Corcoran said she never spoke those words. She contended the employee had planned to show the film to some staff members twice, and she thought that was wasteful.

‘‘It made the lady mad,'' Corcoran said, adding there was mutual agreement the aide should leave.

The report said Corcoran's meetings were considered so important that an inspector general's agent in Denver temporarily jeopardized a major investigation because he wanted to change the date of a search warrant to attend a session.

‘‘After several attempts to change the date and arrangements for the warrant, the Management Committee decided to allow the warrant to go ahead as planned, and changed the date of the Summerfest,'' the report said.

Corcoran said she was unaware of the initial request to change the warrant date.

‘‘I said, absolutely not,'' she said, adding she ordered the meeting date changed instead.

[The_Media_never_lie]

I did not see this posted and it is interesting.

[Lokibob]

I don't see the problem.

Every one of the charges (xcept the treadmill) I saw in private industry before I retired.

Hell, we had 3 day mind and butt numbing conferences for "team building".

$3,000/day for a consultant is nothing in private industry. One of our consultants was paid $5,000 to teach a 4 hour class in defensive driving. He was paid by the head and the whole staff was in the class.

This appears to me the be disgrundled employees kicking the body of the ex-boss in hopes that the new boss will take heed.

IMHO of course.

[The_Media_never_lie]

Well, I agree with you that by 90s and 00s corporate standards that she probably did no wrong by hiring the mind numbing, overpaid team building consultants.

In the 90s our work group was directed to a "ropes" type of team building exercise in which employees donned helmets and climed highwires, performed acrobatics at about 30 feet off the ground and numerous other circus type tricks under the guise of teambuilding. It had nothing to do with work and left no impact other than to the enhanced pocketbook of the management consultant charlatan.

The treadmill was over the top and I think that is what did the bureaucrat in.

It is just fun to see the overbearing, arrogant member of management take a fall for for stupid policies they inflict on their subordinates.

[mt. shavano]

I had the pleasure or working for this woman, and now for her successor. This article does not begin to address some of the more serious issues.

I think what got her in the most hot water was her frequent promotion of unqualified friends to management positions. For example, she hired a friend who managed a flower shop, until it went bankrupt, and then promoted her to a position that is equivalent to a GS-15 ($110,000).

She did the same with the former baby sitter of her kids. This one has a G.E.D., that is in question, and is pulling down over $100,000 managing CPAs, MBAs, etc.

There was also the time when one of her friends/employees wanted to buy a house, but didn't have enough $$ for the down payment. Karla gave the friend and her husband (who also worked for Karla) each a $10,000 bonus for outstanding achievement. Bonuses of this size are virtually unheard of. It's rare for anyone to get a bonus greater than $1,500.

It is also rumored that she hired her boyfriend's ex-wife, so he wouldn't have to pay as much alimony. I know that the investigators were looking into this, but have no idea if it was substantitated.

All in all, I don't think it was her ridiculous management style that did her in, but her rampant abuse of her position.

[Happy2BMe]

Postal inspectors unethical, dishonest?

NEVER! </sarcasm off)

[The_Media_never_lie]

Thank you for all the details. From the tone of the newspaper report I am not surprised of the revelations in your post.

Hope she does not land another big government job.

BTW, was she was a Clinton era appointment? Did she get her job through civil service or did the Clintons appoint her directly?

[TruthNtegrity]

And let us not forget that the Management of this lousy organization paid themselves bonuses (for JUST doing their d@mn job!) of over $30 Million dollars, then announced they'd need to raise the price of stamps this years, due to a "shortfall" in income.

Take those bonuses back, and there'd be no darn shortfall!

For pete's sake, we need to retire half of these goof to pasture, and put in people who know how to WORK!.

[AEMILIUS PAULUS]

Do you have a picture? If so could you post it?

[WL-law]

http://www.usps.com/history/plife/pl121297/watchdog.htm

[WL-law]

Here's another good one:

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/story/65683p-61201c.html

[Lokibob]

I take back what I said!!!!!!

 

 

 

From:

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/story/65683p-61201c.html

 

 

 

Bizarre postal bonding

Goofy games cost public millions as stamp prices soar

By DOUGLAS FEIDEN
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Postal Inspector General Karla Corcoran is lifted by 500 postal workers at conference last year in Washington.

WASHINGTON — They bark like a pack of dogs, quack like a flock of ducks and hiss like a nest of vipers.

They wrap each other from head to toe in toilet paper and aluminium foil and pipe cleaners.

They build sandcastles and gingerbread houses and practice picking up oranges while blindfolded.

These are the professional auditors and investigators who police the United States Postal Service.

The mission of the USPS Office of Inspector General is to make the mail more efficient and cost-effective by rooting out waste, fraud, abuse and mismanagement.

Yet hundreds of IG staffers have been taking part in bizarre bonding and team-building exercises and playing goofy games that burn up millions of dollars — and appear to do little or nothing to curb postal inefficiencies, a Daily News investigation found.

As stamp prices and postal deficits soared over the past few years, the agency's well-paid, highly trained employees got a lesson in scat singing, took an outing to a racetrack — and delved into the history of the Civil War during a $100,000 retreat to the battlefield at Gettysburg.

On USPS time, they've composed Christmas carols, belted out "We Are Family" at sing-alongs, conducted mock trials in which witnesses were paraded before a judge and jury — and played children's games like follow the leader.

Under the supervision of Postal Inspector General Karla Corcoran, civil servants have been paid to emit animal sounds, embark on treasure hunts, dress in cat costumes and seek the counsel of make-believe wizards, magicians and mad scientists at mass gatherings of the workforce.

They've been jetting into the capital from 15 field offices around the nation for "annual recognition conferences" that celebrate the organization and its values. The tab for the last three confabs: $3.6 million, including planning and salary costs.

At one such event, at the Renaissance Washington D.C. Hotel in January 2002, a blindfolded and barefoot Corcoran was swaddled in a blue blanket and hoisted into the air above a hotel ballroom on colored ropes and strings manipulated by some 500 of her 725 employees.

The point of lifting the boss skyward: To show that by working together as a team, they could accomplish a task that would have been impossible to perform alone.

$117 million

Who foots the bill for these shenanigans? You do. Every penny of the IG's $117 million annual budget comes from the stamp-buying public.

"Each time your Aunt Minnie sticks a 37-cent stamp on an envelope, she's funding an agency that's off track, off message, off mission — and off its rocker," said Leslie Paige, vice president of Citizens Against Government Waste, which tracks the misspending of public funds.

So much agency time, energy and money has been consumed in retreats, conferences, picnics, parties and game-playing, team-building outings that the mandate to ferret out USPS ineptitude has taken a back seat, a dozen current and former employees told The News.

"Touchy-feely bonding exercises, management retreats at first-class hotels and annual celebratory events all divert resources that could be better invested in audits and investigations," said Debra Ritt, the agency's former No. 1 auditor.

After some 50 past and present staffers approached Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley with allegations of waste and mismanagement, the Iowa Republican launched a probe of Corcoran's six-year tenure as IG.

"I question whether spending tens of thousands of dollars for an afternoon of treasure hunting sets the gold standard for prudence," Grassley told The News. The President's Council on Integrity and Efficiency, which polices the federal inspector-general community, also is probing the allegations.

Keeping mum

Corcoran, who has run the office since it was created in 1997, refused interview requests over a three-week period. It would be "inappropriate" to comment, a spokeswoman said, while the investigation is going on.

The $142,500-a-year IG — a veteran of former Vice President Al Gore's reinventing government initiative — serves at the pleasure of the USPS Board of Governors and is in the last year of a seven-year term.

In written responses to questions, the agency said its audits and probes of postal operations have identified $2.2 billion in potential, projected and actual savings during the past six years.

Its team-and-leadership development programs mirror those offered by corporate giants and consume only minimal resources, officials claim. They help workers learn more about each other, and themselves, so they can discover novel ways to think and work together.

The exercises also teach acceptance of five core workplace values that the agency instills in all staffers: teamwork, leadership, communication, creativity and conceptualization — better known in IG parlance as "TLC3."

Wrapping people in toilet paper, for instance, displayed teamwork; building sandcastles showed creativity; mimicking animals involved conceptualization. Besides, said agency spokeswoman Laura Whitaker, when "fun and humor" are integrated into the workplace, people become more productive and creative and absenteeism and downtime plummet.

Fun and humor, however, is not how ex-employees such as John Rooney, a former special assistant to Corcoran, describe the organization.

"We were forced to play silly games, build gingerbread houses and sing songs praising Karla, and I found the whole thing humiliating, demoralizing and nonproductive," Rooney said.

Adds Ritt, "Auditors tend to be private, analytical and conservative. Making them sing to large groups, orate and give testimonials shows a lack of respect for their professionalism."

As for "TLC3," employees say it's an agency obsession. In E-mail messages obtained by The News, they've been told to play a "values game" and embark on a "values journey" that uses zany clues to test their TLC3 IQ.

"We never really focused on how we could make the Postal Service better because we were always focused on how much we loved TLC3," said Billy Sauls, the agency's former top investigator.

Among the games the office of inspector general plays:

• TLC3-by-the-Sea.

  In freezing temperatures, 50 managers on their hands and knees built sandcastles on a beach in Ocean City, Md., in November 2000. It was one event in a week-long, team-building retreat. Cost: $35,000.

• Sing-alongs and Colored Dots.

  At a four-day conference at a Washington hotel in January 2001, 650 employees sang "We Are Family," performed skits like "Evolution of the Values" and wore colored dots that represented personality traits. Cost: $1.2 million, including $97,000 for planning, $167,000 to fly people in from 15 field offices and $126,000 to lodge them.

• Pari-mutuel Wagering.

  At a management committee retreat in Shepherdstown, W.Va., in spring 2001, a motivational speaker taught "emotional intelligence" and execs bet on simulcast horse racing at the nearby Tri-State Greyhound Park.

  The racetrack trip was "completely personal, nonmandatory and an after-hour activity," Whitaker said. But managers, who bet with their own money, said they were expected to attend. Cost of retreat: $11,500, not counting salaries.

• Full-Body Wrap.

  At a so-called Summerfest for the Denver field office in a park in Aurora, Colo., in 2001, two dozen staffers wrapped each other from head to toe in toilet paper, aluminium foil, straws and pipe cleaners.

• Boosting the Boss.

  At the three-day "annual recognition conference" in Washington in January 2002, employees built tents out of newspapers, hopscotched across a ballroom on squares labeled with TLC3 values, learned scat singing and hoisted Corcoran aloft. Cost: $1.3 million for 698 attendees, including $192,000 in transportation; $117,000 in lodging; $102,000 for planning; $89,000 for food and beverages; $115,000 for a production company and $32,500 to Outward Bound for the team-building exercises.

• The Blue and the Gray.

  At a $100,000 leadership retreat in Gettysburg, Pa., in February 2002, 150 people toured the Civil War battle site to learn the lessons of Pickett's Charge, a famously failed Confederate counterattack.

  The battlefield is a "natural laboratory for examining leadership and decision-making," the agency said.

  Joyce Hansen, former director of audit operations for the IG, had a different view. "Bonding at Gettysburg doesn't exactly set a good example when the Postal Service is $1 billion in debt," she said.

• Dogs, Ducks and Wizards.

  At the annual conference in Washington at the Grand Hyatt Hotel last December, 725 employees went on a treasure hunt to seek clues about TLC3 from costumed actors playing a wizard, magician, dragon, princess and mad scientist.

  They used Hawaiian leis to spell out the TLC3 values as different teams barked, quacked, waddled, hissed and slithered. Addressing the confab was self-esteem guru Jack Canfield, author of the best-selling "Chicken Soup for the Soul."

  Cost: $1.1 million, including $40,545 for the treasure hunt, $18,700 to pay Canfield, $187,000 for transportation, $106,000 for lodging, $109,000 for planning, $96,000 for food and drink and $85,000 for a production company.

  Said Grassley, "I question whether an IG's office that focuses so much attention on what appears to be frivolous behavior is able to provide the level of oversight that Americans deserve."

  But Karla Corcoran's spokeswoman says the USPS watchdog is not striving to be just one more traditional governmental bureaucracy.

  "Some may disagree with our organizational philosophy," said Whitaker. "But there is no doubt that our work has had a positive effect on the Postal Service's bottom line."

  Games Post Office probers play

• November 2000
  Event: Leadership retreat
  Where: Sheraton Fontaine-bleau Hotel, Ocean City, Md.
  Activities: Building sandcastles
  Cost: $35,000
  
  n December 2000
  Event: Christmas party
  Where: Fort Myer, Arlington, Va.
  Activities: Singing carols
  Cost: N/A
  
  
• January 2001
  Event: Fourth Annual Recognition Conference
  Where: Renaissance Washington D.C. Hotel
  Activities: Singing, performing skits, wearing colored dots
  Cost: $1.2 million
  
  
• Spring 2001
  Event: Management committee retreat
  Where: Bavarian Inn, Shepherdstown, W.Va.
  Activities: Pari-mutuel wagering
  Cost: $11,500
  
  
• Summer 2001
  Event: Summerfest picnic, headquarters
  Where: Fort McNair, Washington, D.C.
  Activities: Bonding exercises, fashion show
  Cost: N/A
  
  
• Summer 2001
  Event: Summerfest picnic, Denver field office
  Where: Cherry Creek State Park, Aurora, Colo.
  Activities: Toilet paper, aluminum foil and pipe cleaner body wrapping
  Cost: $535
  
  
• Fall 2001
  Event: Training and planning session
  Where: William F. Bolger USPS Center for Leadership Development, Potomac, Md.
  Activities: Children's game, "Can I Come to the Party?"
  Cost: N/A
  
  
• December 2001
  Event: Winterfest Christmas party
  Where: Fort Myer, Arlington, Va.
  Activities: Building gingerbread houses
  Cost: N/A
  
  
• January 2002
  Event: Fifth Annual Recognition Conference
  Where: Renaissance Washington D.C. Hotel
  Activities: Scat singing, hoisting blindfolded Inspector General Karla Corcoran aloft
  Cost: $1.3 million
  
  
• February 2002
  Event: Leadership retreat
  Where: Eisenhower Inn & Conference Center, Gettysburg, Pa.
  Activities: Studying Civil War history
  Cost: $100,000
  
  
• Summer 2002
  Event: Summerfest picnic, headquarters
  Where: Andrews Air Force Base, Camp Springs, Md.
  Activities: A "Jeopardy"-style game
  Cost: N/A
  
  
• Summer 2002
  Event: Summerfest picnic, Denver field office
  Where: Dedisse-Denver Mountain Park, Evergreen, Colo.
  Activities: A blindfolded version of "Follow the Leader"
  Cost: N/A
  
  
• December 2002
  Event: Sixth Annual Recognition Conference
  Where: Grand Hyatt Hotel, Washington
  Activities: Treasure hunt, animal mimicking
  Cost: $1.1 million
  
  
  
  Originally published on March 9, 2003

[muawiyah]

You have your agencies mixed up. The Postal Service Office of Inspector General is a separate federal agency. The United States Postal Service is a separate federal agency. The Postal Inspection Service is part of the USPS, not the OIG.

The "bonus" in question were set up in place of cost of living and longevity payments which are normal in the rest of the federal government. In addition, the USPS did not have to pay federal retirement contributions for these payments as it did other base income. No more money was paid to employees than would have been paid if they'd been under the federal employee pay system.

Karla Corcoran (the OIG) sat down with Senator Grassley and torpedoed the USPS supervisory and technical personnel "bonus" system. Grassley then turned on Corcoran and ran her out of town, and many of us wonder why he did that since he'd so firmly embraced her earlier.

The Board of Governors that appointed Karla to her job was dominated by superannuated far leftwing Democratic party hacks. Some of them are still there. No one knows if Karla was particularly "liberal", but she certainly demonstrated that she understood how to develop a cult of personality and a fascist-type management structure.

The new IG, Mr. Williams, has his work cut out for him. He's going to have to re-institute democratic norms in the OIG culture, then he can get around to whacking the folks without credentials.

He might well get an early start on identifying regular USPS postal managers who are as deficient in credentials as are the ones Karla promoted. Then there are the people with degrees from diploma mills. Frankly no one in the USPS has been promoted on the basis of merit, or in accordance with the published job standards, since 1983.

I'm beginning to think the best thing to do is just put the whole thing, lock, stock and barrel, on the market. It's existence as a government agency does nothing but attract crooks and incompetents.

[Tacis]

Is Karla of the minority persuasion?

[RJL]

BTW, was she was a Clinton era appointment?

Yup, she is a Clinton/Gore ‘Rat.

Corcoran, who has run the office since it was created in 1997

The $142,500-a-year IG — a veteran of former Vice President Al Gore's reinventing government initiative

[AEMILIUS PAULUS]

Good Lord! Thanks for the time in pointing to the information.

[DeaconBenjamin]

Muawiyah -- surely you know that the Postal Inspectors have been placed under the IG's control! An extremely odd (perhaps unique) situation to be sure, but it is the case. If you question this fact, refer to an IG quarterly report.

[muawiyah]

There is still a Chief Postal Inspector who reports to the Postmaster General. When the OIG was set up the IS internal audit division was spun off to them immediately. Many IS guys went over there.

The Inspector General, however, reports to the Chairman of the Board of Governors.

We will know that the IS has been put under the command of the OIG by the gunfire.

[muawiyah]

Regarding your question about Karla's ethnicity, she is not African-American, Asian-American, Latin-American, etc. She has neatly colored her hair "auburn" and has fair skin. There are probably lebenteenzillion ethnic groups that could meet that standard.