From
the annals of "You're government is incredibly corrupt" comes another
exciting episode of criminal activity covered up by bureaucrats for an
astonishing two decades.
A lab associated with the United States
Geoglical Survey (USGS) falsified data from 1996 to 2014. And the USGS refuses
to name the bureaucreats responsible or say whether they were punished.
U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) officials refuse to reveal who,
if anyone, has been punished for nearly two decades of “disturbing” data
manipulation.
Someone in the inorganic section of a USGS lab in Lakewood,
Colorado manipulated data – some of which related to the environment – from
1996 to 2014, with “serious and far ranging” effects, the Department of the
Interior (DOI) Inspector General (IG) recently reported.
The Energy Resources Program lab closed March 1, 2016 as a result
of the bad data, but now agency officials won’t say who’s been punished or even
if anybody has or will be.
“Due to the confidential nature of personnel actions, we cannot
disclose any specific actions that have been taken,” USGS spokeswoman
Anne-Berry Wade told The Daily Caller News Foundation. She also cited privacy
laws and refused to name the officials involved.
The first data manipulation issue began in 1996 – just one year
after the USGS program was created – and lasted until 2008.
“Science center officials initiated an investigation, but the employee resigned before the investigation
concluded,” a May 2015 IG report said.
A House Natural Resources subcommittee has held two hearings since
May scrutinizing DOI employees who escaped punishment for misconduct, or were even
promoted.
The second instance began later in 2008 and lasted until 2014,
when USGS halted all work at the lab before closing it two years later. The manipulation affected $108 million worth of
projects, according to the IG.
“USGS is pursuing disciplinary actions for the responsible staff,”
the IG reported in June 2016.
But Wade wouldn’t reveal additional details, including whether any
managers that supervised the analyst who manipulated the data would face
punishment. She also told TheDCNF to ask the IG whether anyone was referred to
the Department of Justice for prosecution.
“We conducted a limited scope inspection and, as a result, we had
no material that gave us a reason to consult with a U.S. Attorney’s office,”
Assistant IG for Investigations Matthew Elliott told TheDCNF.
Regardless, there’s no guarantee the Department of Justice would
have prosecuted anyone, given that the agency declined 17 of 29 referrals from
the IG.
The
effects of the falsified data “are not yet known but, nevertheless, they
will be serious and far ranging,” the June IG report said.
The
idea that this criminal activity is being treated as a personnel matter
shouldn't surprise us. Nor should the
Department of Justice's refusal to
prosecute. Government workers have each other's back whether it's corruption at
a lab, emails at EPA showing collusion with private green groups, IRS targeting
of political foes, or the secretary of state using a private email server that
exposes classified information to hackers.
Despite
clear evidence of criminal wrongdoing, DoJ has refused to prosecute anyone. So
it shouldn't surprise us if Hillary Clinton walks away from charges that have
sent other, non bureaucrats, to jail.
