Retrieved From the Wastebasket

0 Comments | Insight on the News, June 28, 1999 | by Sean Paige

In a belated attempt at spring cleaning, waste and abuse offers these bits and pieces of government profligacy to ponder, culled at last from our leaning "in box" of Pisa.

* Springfield, Mass., is trying to raise $6 million to immortalize some of its local heroes in bronze, including a nationally prominent "doctor," and may get a $2 million boost in the effort from U.S. taxpayers. The town's proposed memorial to author Theodor Geisel, also known to loyal readers as Dr. Seuss, reportedly will feature the Cat in the Hat, Horton the elephant (who readers may recall heard a Who) and the Grinch who stole Christmas. It may get a $2 million donation from the federal treasury, thanks to another noted cartoon character, Sen. Ted Kennedy, who reportedly has joined local Rep. Richard Neal in pushing federal support for the project.

* The Department of Energy isn't the only federal agency responsible for stewardship of cutting-edge U.S. technologies that our world economic competitors and potential adversaries would love to get their hands on. NASA, too, is a treasure trove of such technologies, but isn't being as diligent as it could in ensuring that they aren't transferred to foreign powers willy-nilly, according to a recent report by the space agency's inspector general, or IG. According to the IG, NASA fails to identify, or keep track of, the export-control technologies related to its major programs, needs to improve the training of personnel in its export-control office and fails to conduct regular audits of export-control offices at its major facilities. "As a result," concluded the IG, "NASA may not have adequate control over export-controlled technologies to preclude unauthorized or unlicensed transfers."

* The Department of Housing and Urban Development isn't the only federal agency in the housing business ... and thus isn't the only federal agency plagued by federal-housing-program fraud. In fiscal 1998 the Department of Agriculture, or USDA, provided more than $1.3 billion in rental assistance to tenants residing in more than 447,000 apartments through its Rural Rental Housing Program, or RRH, and another $161 million in fees to apartment owners or management companies. USDA also has more than $12 billion invested in properties through several home-loan programs. But an audit of 32 apartment owners in 13 states uncovered more than $4.2 million in misused funds, resulting in criminal referrals or ongoing investigations of half the owners audited. One apartment manager allegedly skimmed $630,000 from 70 RRH complexes by charging duplicate costs; another apartment owner used $325,000 in RRH fees for personal expenses. This diversion of funds sometimes resulted in the serious deterioration of subsidized rental properties, according to the audit.

* Additionally, a recent review of USDA's Single Family Housing Guaranteed Rural Housing Loan Program, or GRHLP, found that nearly a quarter of loan recipients (totaling nearly $100 million in loans) did not meet eligibility requirements because they made too much money, had no means of repayment or had a questionable credit history. This occurred, the report concluded, "because neither the lenders nor the [Rural Housing Service] fully complied with program instructions and guidelines in determining loan eligibility." Loan losses in the fast-growing program have increased from $161,000 in fiscal 1994 to $24.4 million in fiscal 1998, according to the audit: "As a result, the amount of appropriated funds needed to assist in paying loan losses each year has increased."

RELATED ARTICLE: California Poisons Lake to Kill the Northern Pike

In 1997 the state of California purposely poisoned beautiful little Davis Lake, a pristine pool of blue cradled in the High Sierras, in a scorched-water effort to exterminate the northern pike, an aggressive, nonindigenous species that the Fish and Game Department said posed a threat to nearby rivers. The lake quickly would bounce back, "professionals" with the state assured skeptical locals, who rely on the lake as a tourist draw and source of water. But the deadened lake didn't rebound as predicted, resulting in financial hardships, lawsuits, criminal charges against the state and a recent $10 million settlement paid by California to the community.

But this spring the pike came bouncing back along with the rest of Davis Lake, and state officials again are skulking around (albeit with a lower profile). Locals are wondering if it's deadly deja vu all over again. "Oh, no, here we go again" one local said.

The discovery several weeks ago of two mature pike in the lake has state officials wondering how the pike survived the last poisoning or if they purposely were reintroduced by someone to the lake. "What we're trying to do is to establish whether we have a self-sustaining population of pike. If we do, then we're going to have to sit down with the community and discuss what to do" said a spokesman for California Fish and Game.

But the community -- once burned, twice shy -- is understandably reluctant again to place its fate in the hands offish and Game. "It's ridiculous," one local businessman told the Associated Press. "We've all suffered. My business went down to nothing. There have been pike all over the Midwest, all over the country. They are good game fish. Why not just go catch 'em?"