From: jym@mica.berkeley.edu (ACTIV-L via Jym Dyer)
Newsgroups: alt.activism,talk.environment,alt.news-media
Subject: Project Censored: EPA Fails to Pursue Violators
Date: 14 Nov 92 01:24:50 GMT
Followup-To: alt.activism.d,talk.environment,alt.news-media
Organization: The Naughty Peahen Party Line
NNTP-Posting-Host: remarque.berkeley.edu

[Also Posted to misc.activism.progressive (by Somebody Else)]

EPA FAILS TO PURSUE VIOLATORS OF FRAUD AND ABUSE

The Environmental Protection Agency was created in 1970 to
administer and enforce national pollution control laws dealing
with air and water pollution, noise abatement, solid waste
management, pesticide regulation and radiation standard setting.

In June 1991, the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on
oversight and investigations issued a report that charged the
EPA with failing to perform its responsibilities.

Specifically, the report said EPA auditors failed to pursue
potential waste and fraud in some $8.6 billion worth of
government contracts, including critical work on the Superfund
hazardous waste cleanup program.

It charged that the independent watchdog office within the EPA
is "plagued by serious leadership failures," that efforts to
audit serious fraud allegations against one of EPA's largest
contractors were "superficial," and that investigators'
performance in prosecuting potential fraud by Superfund cleanup
contractors was "dismal.''

The report, which covered fiscal years 1984 through 1990, added
that there were 273 outstanding requests for audits that had not
been attended to and called that "simply staggering."

The subcommittee report said the EPA Inspector General's office
missed serious problems discovered by Pentagon auditors and EPA
procurement of ficials and ignored those findings as well as
investigations by the inspector general's regional office.

Of 48 Superfund cases selected for investigation from 1984-90,
the report said only four percent resulted in any prosecution
and only eight percent led to administrative action such as
employee dismissals.

The inspector general's own standards rate an investigative
manager's performance as unsatisfactory if fewer than 25% of
the closed cases lead to a criminal or administrative action.

One of the primary responsibilities of the press is to hold
those in power accountable for their actions.  In this case, the
taxpayers will be stuck with the bill while the guilty parties
once again avoid being held accountable.

(SSU CENSORED RESEARCHER:  KATHY AANESTAD)

SOURCE:LOS ANGELES TIMES (Associated Press) Times Mirror Square,
Los Angeles, CA 90037

DATE:  717/91

TITLE:  "EPA Fails to Pursue Fraud Contract Abuse, Panel Says"

COMMENTS: Project Censored colleagues who have followed the
works of environmental writer Jim Sibbison in the past won't be
surprised at this nomination.  In 1988, Sibbison wrote the #2
story of the year where he revealed how reports of improvement
in environmental pollution levels were a deliberate attempt by
the EPA to mislead and pacify the public (Columbia Journalism
Review,Nov/Dec 1988,"Dead fish and red herrings: how the EPA
pollutes the news").  Again, in 1989, Sibbison, in the #22 story
of the year, reported on the ethical question of the revolving
door between high level EPA officials and the industry they
reportedly are monitoring.  (The Nation,11/6/89, "Revolving Door
at the EPA.  ")

In this year's nomination, apparently an exception to Jeffrey
Denny's story of the failure of Congressional oversight (see
#14,), the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on oversight
and investigations attempted to expose an extraordinary case of
EPA malfeasance but the mass media didn't follow-up on the
story.

The report, which cited EPA auditors for failure to pursue
potential fraud and waste in nearly $9 billion of government
contracts, in addition to 273 requests for audits not done,
deserved far more coverage than the 12-column inches the Los
Angeles Times gave the Associated Press story on page A4.